Cleaning Marathon

This week has been a bit of a cleaning marathon, particularly as the week progressed.  Although I had intended to start cleaning the house the week that we got back from Centre Parcs, it didn't actually happen.  Firstly, I got thrown sideways by my business account going into overdraft, then I got distracted doing some work for my small business and finally, I decided to tackle the washing pile first instead and get it out of the way.

By this week, I had got the washing and ironing under control and decided that anyway, this week was a better one to clean as LB had some friends coming to stay overnight on the Friday, the last day of the school term.  I figured it made sense to clean just before they came and it would remain clean.

I started on Wednesday afternoon and cleaned the two reception rooms, washing all the cushion covers and spraying the sofas with fabric freshener.  The rooms got a good dust, hoover and mop and it felt great to get on top of them again, as I find when my house starts to get dirty, I often feel overwhelmed by it.

I intended to carry on on Thursday, but for some reason, with a doctor's appointment to go to, a some financial stuff to take care of and a very good episode of Nashville to catch up on, I didn't actually get around to any cleaning, so Friday was the day that most of the action happened.

I started off by cleaning the upstairs bathroom, moved on to LB's room which wasn't as bad as it sometimes can be.  I changed all the bedding, cleaned around and tidied lots of things away to make as much room as possible for 3 (almost) teenagers, hoovered and then continued hoovering my way through the stairs, landing, hallway and kitchen, before then mopping areas that needed it too.  I decided on this occasion to put a couple of drops of eucalyptus essential oil in the mop bucket and it added a lovely smell to the rooms.  I'll be doing this regularly from now on.

I finished off by cleaning the downstairs cloakroom/toilet, by which time it was nearly 3pm and I decided to stop for lunch.  I think I had earned it.   LB and her friends were leaving school at 1ish, going for lunch and to another friend's before coming back here. Luckily I had plenty of time to get everything done and then have a cup of tea, (don't you just love it when it works out like that) before heading off to the gym at 5.30pm.

I didn't manage to deep clean the kitchen, but I did hoover and mop the floor, clean all of the worktops and wipe down the inside of the fridge, which made a difference.  I doubt they'll be spending much time in there anyway, as it was takeaway pizzas from the local pizzeria as a treat for tea. I'll save that job for one day in the holidays.

It feels good to get most of the house clean before the summer holidays begin proper, so that now I can relax about the state of it and just go with the flow and enjoy spending some time with LB.