When we first moved into this home I vacuumed every two or three days. I was pregnant but only had Spencer at home. Easy! It only took 15 minutes! Why in the world did I do it so often? Spencer wasn't that messy! Good heavens - what did I do with all my extra time then? I still don't know!
Anywho.
Then Josh came around. And then Cole. And now I'm lucky if I vacuum once a week. Why?
To start, I have to pick up all the toys that are around the house. I try to keep the house fairly clean, but I've given up on keeping all the toys off the floor. It's simply impossible. So by 'pick up the toys' I mean 'throw them all onto the couch or bed or whatever'. All the while telling the boys that no, they cannot get more toys out right now. NO!
Then I have to do some actual vacuuming. Easier said than done. Josh loves to play chicken with the vacuum, which drives me nuts. He's always getting in the way. As a result I no longer stop if I know I'm going to run into him. Hey, if you're gonna play chicken with the vacuum you gotta expect a few bruised toes.
Then there's Cole, who is in love with the vacuum. He wants to climb on it and play with it and taste it and follow it all around the house. As he slithers around following me he often gets wrapped up in the cord, forcing me to stop every few minutes to untangle him.
As I vacuum I have to stop every few minutes for the random toys I find. Does anyone else find toys in the most random spots in their house? I am forever finding Legos, Hotwheels, blocks, and whatnot in the most unusual places: on my pillow, behind my closet door, in the fridge, in my shoes, etc.
Today I had extra fun - the belt on the vacuum broke when I didn't see some weird, big, metal clippy thing in the office. Yikes. I tried to be sneaky about fixing it, but kids have a sixth sense when it comes to projects that would be a lot easier to accomplish without them. Within minutes I had two little 'helpers', turning what should have been a five minute project into a fifteen minute project.
Josh helped by moving the screws and trying to lose them. Cole helped by trying to eat all of the fuzz and dust and junk that fell out of the vacuum. The instructions helped by being poorly translated from Japanese into English.
I finally finish vacuuming, but not before I somehow cut the knuckle of my thumb on the handle, change Cole's poopy diaper, and discover that Josh has spilled his snack all over the floor of a room that I have already vacuumed.
So if you come to my house, please don't closely inspect my carpet. (And if you do, kindly keep your comments to yourself!)
Now you'll have to excuse me. It's time for the quarterly cleaning of the bathrooms.
5 comments:
Maren, I love how honest and blunt you are with telling things as they are on your blog. There are so many times I just want to copy your posts and put them in my blog because they totally explain my life. Yes, I find toys in the most random spots of my home, and I totally understand the toys all over the floor and the way the kids "Help" with changing a vacuum belt. Oh, the joys of motherhood.
AMEN!!!! I have also been known to just vacuum up the little random toys I find laying around. Its one less piece of clutter in my home.
ONLY once a week! i'm lucky if i vacuum twice a month!
I vacuum bi-monthly around here so you're better than I am! I understand the random toys around the house. The other day I decided to vacuum and found the doll's hairbrush stuck in the heating vent in the corner of the living room. I'm just glad we haven't been needing the heat!
Quarterl cleaning of the bathrooms? That's twice as often as Kevin cleans his.
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