Dancing away the Cleaning Blues...
You know where to find it ...
Endless Beginnings...
For God's sake, tell me where to begin? I was set out to write about Father's day and the thousands of fatherless Iraqi children.The thousands of killed fathers, the thousands of fathers trying desperately hard to feed their families, daily putting their lives at great risk, in a country gripped by demonic violence. The exiled fathers, selling scraps in Amman and Damascus, bearing the brunt of daily insults. Or the unemployed fathers, feeling torn inside watching their kids go hungry. Or maybe the head bent down father, slouched posture, hiding scars beneath a worn out shirt. The father that has been imprisoned, humiliated, tortured and sodomized, unable to look his children in the eyes... Or maybe I should write about sexual torture and sodomy instead... The further horrors emerging from Abu Ghraib and the Taguba report... More reports of "abuse". And I am sure Abu Ghraib is not over. I am certain that more Abu Ghraibs are taking place in Iraq, in those shadowy deten
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Love you!
Actually, it can give you quite a high, and make you feel you are living dangerously, if you only begin cleaning the place about 3 hours before the visitor arrives. This includes preparing the food etc. It is absolutely amazing how many things one can do at the same time, when one works at this pace. Look, you actually do things in a way you have never done before.
Then when the visitor arrives, you go to the door looking calm and collected as if you are a person that has everything under control. You can experience another sort of buzz from this too, knowing that nobody knows or saw you in your pre-frantic state.
But if you happen to try this. I had better warn you that there can be some side-effects. For me, when I sit down to share the meal with my guests, I am inclined to go into a trance like state due to the lack of not having my usual coffee and thinking breaks. But with practice one can master being able to hold a conversation at the same time without being caught out.
If you try this let me know how it goes.
In solidarity
I used to clean roof construction debris. The other workers hated it - they saw the work as lowly. I negotiated my price and worked as fast as possible. I would be nearly out of breath the whole time. The time zipped by. Three hours felt like 1 hour. In three hours, I would have over 1 days work done. The boss was very happy because three hours earlier he was confronted with a mess that sat around for weeks and got in everyone's way. My fee was $100, which was excellent pay in the 80s for unskilled labor. My method was simple: dive in and lift as much as possible. Throw it into the container - it does not matter if some pieces fall and do not make it, simply pick them up again. Pick the pieces out of the bushes as fast as you can. Don't worry if you miss any because you will make a final pass.
The same works with household cleaning - dive in, make 2 passes, and always do the big easy stuff first.
Always make a list to gague your progress:
1 Hour:
1. Load diswasher and washing machine
2. First pass living room and dining room, bulk cleaning only
3. First pass kitchen and bathroom, laundry room. Remove all trash. Look around, now your place is respectable again
4. First pass bedrooms, bulk cleaning. Put clothes in piles in laundry room.
Checkpoint, check off items
1 Hour:
5. Wipe kitchen and bath counters. Rapid mop floors with wet/dry towel/rag
6. Final pass all rooms, make beds, wipe up dust with damp rag
Checkpoint, check off items
I am going to surprise my wife and clean up, following the list above.
Now for the motivation. Whenever someone tells me I cannot do something, my adrenaline spikes, sending me into action.
Layla, you expect to return to the days of Saddam, where you got something for nothing, where life was good because of who you knew or what tribe you belonged to. But that is not going to happen. Saddam is dead, and you could do nothing to stop it. His last wish was for you to give up your hate, but you cling to it because it is the only thing that pushes you out of bed in the morning. You are too weak to start with a clean slate.
"Dear nation: Get rid of the hatred, take the clothes of hate and throw it into the ocean of hatred," [Saddam] wrote. "God will save you and you will start a clean life, with a clean heart."
So what are you going to do about your filthy apartment? Nothing - you are all talk. Layla, you cannot clean your apartment because you are lazy and weak.
Greg from USA
One thing that is an absoulte: SHOES COME OFF AT THE DOOR.
Layla, maybe get a portable radio with headphones. I know you listen to news. Stick on yer headphones and listen wile you clean.
I find most radio stations around me ( actually al of 'em ) play garbage on the radio. The shit that passes for music.....
Besides, some music can zap yer energy because some songs may be downers but, listening to news May Be A Downer too..but atleast it may be somewhat productive while cleaning.
black dress and high heels hmm
:-)
"black dress and high heels hmm"
There is hope for you
Greg from USA
And you should experience the feeling of being in love again, it is the most powerful source of energy, courage and Hope that exist in the Universe.
Regards.
Maybe if you actually Knew my private life, you wouldn't act as if you were surprised. ;-)
The best way to clean an apartment is to establish a small "base camp" of cleanliness, no matter how small and maintain it and attack the rest, guerrilla style when it is advantageous for you to do so and retreating to your island of cleanliness when it makes sense and is tactically wise - using "massive amounts of force" and effort are so American, so exhausting and ultimately so futile....
As for those who 'hate cooking' You know there is a town in Italy (can't recall the name for now) where McDonald and Ronald had to leave. This amazing political feat was achieved by mothers and children who love their own food. The children from early age actually enjoy learning to make their own pasta. The whole town loves cooking, and loves their own created pasta and sauces, and ethnic dishes and they love the social implications that belong to their food. And through this McDonald's could not get one customer.
As to hiring domestic cleaners. Now this does open up Pandora's box. Here I would suggest perhaps those who suggest using someone else to clean our houses for us should go try it for a while themselves.
And perhaps those of us who live in this so-called civilised society should ask ourselves why is it, that we have every electric driven machine which was sold with the corporate tag of 'making domestic life bliss', and yet people hate cooking, hate cleaning, hate rearing children, hate what we look like, hate their washing machines washing nappies, and would prefer to stuff up the environment with papers/plastic nappies to save their washing machines from washing nappies. They hate their garden vacuums sucking up leaves. They hate their motor-mowers cutting the grass. They hate being overweight,while sitting steering their cars. And with their assortment of electrical food mixers, they hate food and develop anorexia. This tells me people do not want to really live in this 'electric' driven way.
Also,I must say here, Karlmarxwasright/Anonymous your enthusiasm for organisation and 'down sizing' frightens me. It has tones of those Nazi shows on TV where people are assessed as 'hoarders' and they are told they must learn to be more organised , and then pressured into having a big waste-bin pull up outside their homes and strangers enter and invade their personal belongings in the name of “downsizing” And someones life of the familiar, and of memories and loves, drives off in an organised rubbish bin! Upon close scrutiny, this has some common themes with the US invasion of Iraq.
Layla, if your article was meant to be in serious mode then accept your dust, and papers, and your floor being littered with paper clips because they are part of what you are, and part of your creativity. I am sure you will get around to cleaning when the time is right. Besides, dust comes from the primitive life of which a silent part of us all yearns to return to. - hence industrialised civilisations' inner and outer turmoil and over- compensatory materialism, and problems cleaning.