A Woman's Work is Never Done

A Woman's Work is Never Done

A little bleach, a lot of soap;
So why the dirt and grime again?
I scrubbed it twenty years ago -
Why should it need recleaning then?

©Donna JT Smith, 2015

Ah, I got my -ch word "sketch" poem for Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe.  I was on the old list word when I posted the word "bleach" above.

Oh, my sketch and her two partners here help make plenty of work for me...if I thought my work was ever going to be done, they have made me rethink it.

Every other Wednesday evening, I have a marvelous housecleaner come in.  She isn't just any housecleaner.  She was originally my daughter's friend.  But when my daughter moved away, and her friend got married and moved into a house quite close to ours by Maine standards, she came to be a good friend of mine, too.

On those Wednesdays I get to have tea and conversation with her before she starts.  I give her a list of things that I can't do or don't want to do.  She vacuums, damp mops, washes and fills the dogs' big water jug, dusts, wipes down walls and railings, and washes windows and mirrors.  Some of these things I can do, and some, like standing on chairs to dust light fixtures and carrying a 2 or 3 gallon jug of water for the dogs are things I shouldn't be doing.

Last week I got an idea.  It was a great one.  I have this corner cabinet in the kitchen that does not have a Lazy Susan in it - just two shelves and lots of stuff in it I haven't been able to reach in ages.  So I had her take everything out so I could sort it and she could put back only those things I still needed and wanted, and put them in order.  ORDER.  Love that word.  I now have a clean cabinet and a pile of baking pans to go to Goodwill.

And because that worked out so slick, and it's still in good order (I am sooo loving it with everything neat and easy to reach), I decided this week to tackle Under the Sink.  That is capitalized because it is a real place!  And it is a not nice place.  I had old coffee cans, yogurt cups, plastic lids, vases, bottles, jars, cleaning items, and dish soaps of all kinds down there.  Except for the cleaning items that all people have, it looked like a teacher lived in this house - if it was something that could potentially be repurposed for paints or constructing something crafty, then I had it.  Sometimes it is not pretty being a teacher of first grade.

Forget you ever knew this about me!

So after vacuuming, I opted for going to Under the Sink instead of dusting today.  I sat at the kitchen table while she pulled everything out onto the kitchen floor.  Then I stuffed all recyclables into a trash bag for taking to the center, threw away those things that couldn't be recycled, and then handed her a large plastic Lazy Susan that I'd bought at Lowe's the day before.  She put things back for me, and now - Wow!  I'm like organized.  I'm feeling really good about my cabinets now.   I may have company over just so I can show them Under the Sink.

And this is how it looks even now, this very moment:

I want you to always think of me this way!

I love it.  Under the Sink is now a good place to be!

I have already mentioned to her that the foyer closet may need help next time she is out.  It's such a great feeling to have order in your life.  Of course, all order in my life is only temporary, but I can dream.

P.S.: First round of voting on poems for March Madness 2015 begins tonight at 8 pm central.  More poems are being added by a second group by midnight tonight to continue the madness.  Polls are open ALL DAY tomorrow.  If you go there, you will want to make sure you have time to read, because once you start, you won't want to stop!  The poems are short - only 8 lines max!  Who can't take time to read a short kids' poem or 32?