Who Knew?

I have a confession to make--I am one of the world's absolutely worst housekeepers.  Combine this with my seeming inability to get ANYTHING done unless it's under pressure, and it spells disaster!  Really.  (And now throw in two long-haired, 100+ pound, "puppies"!)

So, imagine my horror when I found out we were out of temporary housing time and had to move back into our house before it has sold (or even gotten an offer!).  I didn't really enjoy the two mini-moves (to temp housing and back) in one summer.  I didn't enjoy fighting with the Residence Inn about their inhospitable pet policies.  And I REALLY didn't enjoy Kai getting so stressed he started to get aggressive.  But all of that, all of it, paled in comparison to. . .HAVING TO KEEP THE HOUSE CLEAN, really clean, LONG TERM.

As anybody who's ever had a house up for sale knows, you have to keep it spotless--make it look as if it is no effort to clean, or to keep clean.  Eeeeeek! 

You'd think the necessary pressure was there.  And it is.  But, unless you have a showing booked, it's in the background--laying there, stressing you out, yet never becoming acute enough to actually move you.  My worst nightmare. 

While we were not living here, we had a cleaning service come in once a week to keep things under control.  Easy, if expensive.  But actually being here, I feel much too guilty to allow that to go on.  Still, it has to be done, and I know myself well enough to know I'm not very likely to keep up with it.  What to do?  What to do?

We decided to try a Roomba.  I'd wanted one for the longest time (see the above paragraph about my housekeeping skills), and now I had an excuse!  And.  We.  Love.  It!!!!!!!  It works!  It really works!  People complain that it's noisy, or that it leaves tracks on the floor, or whatever.  But who cares?  It actually does KEEP THE FLOORS CLEAN!  Without any effort on your part.  And with absolutely no stress!

And guess what?  If you keep the floors clean, the rest of it follows--there is less dust generated for flat surfaces and there is less dog fur on furniture.  And, because you have to keep the floor clear for the Roomba to clean it, things get put up!   Did I mention that I LOVE IT!!!

I was completely astounded by this simple floor cleaning trick.  How could I not know this?  Why was I not told?  Why isn't it written down somewhere?   I asked my mother why she never told me, and her answer was, "I guess I just thought everybody knew."  

MOM!!!!  Where would I have learned it?!

Sigh.  Who knew?