Cleaning…or not

We have woken this morning to the rain pouring down. Perhaps it will be a good time to get more of the spring cleaning within the house done. I have already started tackling a couple of the rooms. One thing I really dislike doing is washing ceilings. If anyone has a good tip, I would love it. My step ladder broke a couple of years ago. I was using it outside and leaning forwards at the time, putting all of my weight on the front portion of it.  One of its legs buckled under the pressure, sending me tumbling to the ground. I had very sore ribs as a result of the fall. Nowadays, I revert back to my old method and that is filling a bucket of hot water and cleaner, soaking a towel in the mix, wringing it and then placing the towel over a broom and wiping the towel-laden broom over the ceiling. The method works but it is tedious and messy and not really good practice on a wet day like today as there is already enough moisture in the air. Actually, we do have a big ladder that could be used, but that is tedious as well, as there would be many ladder-shifts to contend with and it takes up way more space than the step ladder did. I have invented many methods in my head to do these ceilings, over the years, like attaching a roller to two fixed bars and moving the bars along as the ceiling gets cleaned. I wonder why no one has yet invented a simple ceiling-cleaning device. Or perhaps there is one out there that I don’t know about.

During my earlier years, when I shifted a lot, it seemed like I was forever cleaning ceilings as each time I left a rental, I would give it a thorough going over. Some of these cleans were perhaps unwarranted, as the houses were not always in the best condition when I moved into them. I had one agent once, who made me dig the whole vegetable garden over before I left. This hadn’t even been done when I arrived. I obliged, but it did seem unfair that I was made to leave the property in a better condition than when I had arrived. The experience was not wasted though, as I hired the same woman when I rented my own house out. I knew she would make sure the tenants respected it.

Anyway, back to the tasks on hand. There is also the oven that is overdue for a clean. That would probably be a better job for today.

And I do have my workshop to practise for – that is on Thursday.

Or perhaps I could curl up with a nice book for the day. What a damned good idea.