Optimistic Mondays – The Kitchen Floor

I love to live in a clean house. However, cleaning house is not my favorite thing to do. I don’t thrive on it. It’s not what I do when I’m stressed, or mad, or need a distraction. Sometimes I wish I was the type of woman that, when faced with a problem of some sorts says, “I have to go clean something.” But I’m not.

It’s a necessary evil for me. My least favorite place to clean is the kitchen floor. But it’s exactly that same kitchen floor that drives me the most crazy when it’s dirty. I can’t stand walking across the floor in socks or bare feet, and having something stick to the bottom of my feet. Or the sound of crunching cereal as I grind a piece into thousands of little dust particles.

To properly clean the floor, it takes several steps. I remove all the chairs around the table, putting them in the living room. Next, I sweep the floor. I’m always amazed at the pile of crumbs I end up with. Yikes!

After sweeping, I get out the swiffer. It’s shocking how much this can pick up. I just swept for Pete’s sake! Then I finally move onto actually mopping, down on hands and knees. At least I have knee pads, to save my poor knees from the tile floor. Once again, I look into the bucket upon completion, and can’t believe how dirty the water is. Three steps later, I’m done.

Wonder upon wonder, I feel a deep satisfaction putting the chairs back around the table, and knowing I don’t have to worry about stepping on something that will stab into my foot. At least not for about another hour, when the kids get up from their naps.

But, as always, there are wonderful things about scrubbing the kitchen floor, and for cleaning the rest of the house, too. It’s a great way to get some exercise. I’m usually sweating before I’m done, and I can feel my stomach muscles are tight too. One of my arms was holding up my body weight (weight lifting?) while the other one was scrubbing. Lifting chairs = more exercise.

In addition to the exercise factor, having a freshly cleaned house just makes me feel good. I love walking from room to room and seeing my progress, knowing I accomplished something that day. And even better, is when my hubby gets home and says it looks really nice. That makes it all worth it.

So go and clean something. It will make you feel wonderful!

Happy Monday.