Monday, September 10, 2007

The spiders tremble at her wrath

(c) 2007 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com


My mother-in-law, Gramma Yori, is here to visit and help. And, lo, the woman is a cleaning fiend.

She arrived Friday late afternoon, and by the end of the evening, she had one of the bedrooms cleaned from top to bottom. That's no mean feat, because I swear there were 200 spiders in there, plus current webs, plus old webs, plus the dead bug husks... (Well, I could keep going, but then I think Kittenpie, who doesn't care for spiders, might just take my blog off her reading list! *grin* *wave*)

Since then, she and Mr. Kluges ('cuz I've been primarily kid-wrangling) have cleaned the dining room top to bottom (including the built-in buffet), hauled out the rugs and runners that were left and vacuumed and carpet-cleaned them twice, finished hauling all the considerable amount of junk/treasures left in the attic out to the garage, vacuumed the cobweb-filled attic stairs and the main stairs, thoroughly cleaned the "sewing room" and another bedroom and the large linen closet and the cedar closet (we have a cedar closet!) and about half of the hallway, plus they almost have Pumpkin's room cleaned... Whew, I'm getting tired just writing about it. Mr. Kluges has also finished cleaning out the gutter, which desperate needed it, and has done some yardwork, which has consisted mainly of pulling out, hacking down, or hacking back vegetation.

(I passed off kid-watching for long enough one day to do the big, really dirty one from the living room three times, just to feel like I'd contributed, you know?)

And where is she now? Back at the house for another day of Mr. Clean, Spic-n-Span, and Old English Wood Soap. We'll be joining her a bit later, once Mr. Kluges drops off the car, but I think she's declared war on the spiders and the mess.

God bless her for it!

3 comments:

Pusher said...

Nothing makes me feel like a lazier, more pathetic slug than watching a woman from our parents' generation clean. Hooray for Gramma Yori!

DiploWhat said...

Totally agree with Pusher. Maybe this means that our kids will be good cleaners? Maybe it just skips a generation?

Hey, you could "hire" my mom if you want. She won the Miss Betty Crocker award when she was in high school. I kid you not. She's super stressed right now, so her cleaning would probably be through the roof. Sounds like she'd get along with g'ma Yori wonderfully. Just get her some champaign (though she claims she doesn't drink, get her some champaign and all bets are off - don't worry- she's a funny/laughy "drunk").

But, if I had a house like yours, even I wouldn't mind getting out the old fashioned Murphy's Oil Soap (the kind you had to disolve in scalding hot water) and do your floors and base boards.

Otherwise, man, I can't wait to get back to Asia where the housecleaning help is good, plentiful and CHEAP!!

Allknowingjen said...

Yeah- um, my mom didn't get that cleaning gene, and it certainly didn't skip on ahead to me. I come from a long line of "good enough" cleaners. :)

But thank goodness you have her there to help! She certainly sounds like she has everything under control!