Clean Floors and Burnt Popcorn

(This is not me.... )

I have a confession to make - I'm a slob! I hate to clean and I'm not very good at picking up after myself. I discovered this about myself almost 10 years ago, but it's still a hard habit to break! Three years ago we upgraded homes from 1350 sq feet to 3800 sq feet. I LOVE my house (the layout), but sometimes I wish I could get rid of a few rooms that we just don't use that often. I love having a guest room when we have company, but when we don't have company, it's our stash and dash room. We dump all the mess in there and shut the door. We have a formal living room and dining room that I only use when the Visiting Teachers come in the evening. When they come during the day, we go in the Family Room. We only use the formal dining room when we have friends over to eat (and the junkier table is in there right now, so that's where the kids sit, not the adults.) Sometimes I wish I could close up those rooms (like they do in old English classics) and only use them when we have guests over. The problem with having such a large house, is that it just encourages people to spread their mess over an even bigger area. If I make a junk mail pile in one part of my kitchen, I don't have to clean it up right away because I still have lots of space left... so after a few days of neglect, I will have piles of junk everywhere and then it takes me an hour to sort through it all and get rid of it.

Yesterday, I worked long and hard cleaning. I dusted off my ipod and listened to an audiobook while I worked. Since we got back from CA at least 10 days ago, I've only been doing the bare minimums. Before we left to go to CA, I'd only been doing the bare minimums. I just couldn't take it anymore, so I designated yesterday as a "clean the house until I drop" day. And I did... clean and clean and clean...and then I cleaned some more... and sadly, after 4 hours, there wasn't much visual improvement! Isn't that pathetic? That's how behind in my cleaning I was. The one "obvious" hint that I'd spent all day cleaning was the aroma from my mop (I have a Hoover Floor Mate... I highly recommend it for anyone with lots of flooring and not so much carpet). The cleaner I used left a very pleasant "just been cleaned" scent in the air! When Megan and Ian walked in the door at 3:30, I heard from Megan, "wow, Mom, it smells clean in here!" Sigh... grin... satisfaction!

Then, not ten minutes later it was all over. Ian asked if he could make popcorn for a snack. "Only if you keep it on the kitchen table," I said, "I just mopped all the floors!" Three minutes later, I'm in the dining room, putting furniture back after moving it for my mop job and I hear from Megan, "mom, what's all that smoke coming from the microwave?" What??? Are you kidding me!?! I ran into the kitchen to find smoke pouring out of the microwave... Ian had pushed the wrong button for popcorn and it was burning -- badly! (This is not my popcorn, nor is it my microwave! ----> )

We opened up every window and door, but it took a long time to clear the smoke out. And now, it's the next morning and it still smells like burnt popcorn in my kitchen! ARGHH! And my eyes are swollen and feel like they have sand in them from having every window open and letting in so much pollen! I guess I just can't win!