Dirty

I've been thinking about the concept of a dirty house and how we can become used to it and live in...well, not filth, but just......bleech...without realizing it. I think it is because it is Saturday (as I type this post up), the day of chores around our house, and Wifey and I recently visited each of our parents.

Also, I recently ran across an old blog posting of mine about how people look clean on the outside, and yet can live in squalor on the "inside".

When I first started dating Wifey, the first time I went to her house....I was in shock. It was a very awkward moment when I entered her house. Her entire house was covered in a layer of dust and Dalmatian hair. It was G-R-O-S-S. Now when you first start dating, you bite your tongue. And to be honest, I didn't know what to do. Most gals I dated didn't have their own house, but at least their apartments were nice and tidy. And because of my Mom (more on that later!), I have an obsession with keeping a clean and respectable toilet bowl.

Back to Wifey. If you've ever owned a Dalmatian, you realize that they shed like crazy. I didn't know this until I started dating Wifey as I didn't know anyone with Dalmatians. As you're petting them, little white hairs "puff" and fly into the air and land everywhere. After owning them for a few years, I think she was used to this layer of small white hairs everywhere. And since she was raised by my lazy MIL.....let's just say that she wasn't used to vacuuming every week like I was. But to be fair, I also have employed the same cleaning woman for almost 15 years now. I know that every 2 weeks, the house gets vacuumed, dusted, and the toilets get scrubbed.

So when Wifey moved in, the issue of the dog hairs was moot since I had a cleaning lady that ran a vacuum cleaner every two weeks. But when we underwent our renovation 2 years ago and pulled out the old carpet in our bedroom (where the dogs sleep at night), I kinda freaked out. There was a nasty layer of white Dalmatian hairs that was under our bed on the off-white berber carpet.

Fortunately or unfortunately, we put in wood floors. Now, I can see the Dalmatian hair and F-R-E-A-K. After I or my housekeeper cleans the floor, two days later the floor feels "sandy", like someone tracked in some sand from the beach. The sand feeling is a combination of Dalmatian hair and the pet dander. Now with wood, the pre-existing "dog dust" is no longer hidden as it was with the carpet (which also masked the feel of it). For a while, I just waited the two weeks until my cleaning lady came. But then I decided that peace of mind was more important. Now, I vacuum every 2-3 days or the disgust factor becomes too much, whichever comes first (it's gotten to the point where I've considered having an "upstairs" Dyson and a "downstairs" Dyson - because I also run the vacuum on our concrete floors because they essentially show the dogs hairs and dander downstairs).

But on the recent trips to our respective parent's houses, the concept of dirty houses has got me riled up again.

Wifey's Mom has 4 cats. Until a few months ago, she had 5. She's one of those people who give the cats "one side" of the house. Wifey was describing going into the room where all the litter boxes were kept. Even to Wifey, it was disgusting. The Girl had to leave that room because she felt sick to her stomach with the stench of that room. Knowing my MIL, I figured she can just mentally put it out of her head and says, "What stinky (and urine soaked) carpet?". But you can tell that in the back of her mind, she knows it is bad. Because the cats are not allowed on the other half of the house, that part is fairly clean and picked up. It's just my MIL is too lazy to deal with the cleaning part that comes with pet ownership. And ironically, Wifey told me, "Ugh, her house has just got a layer of dust and cat hair everywhere!" (ummmm, errrr...that sounds familiar)

Now, my mother.

Wow, since the days I've lived under their roof, she's really gone downward in terms of house cleaning. But come to think of it, maybe she had things under control because she had me and my sister as unpaid labor? They don't clean the upstairs bathrooms very often and they are not disgusting, just a bit "bleech". A few years ago, I told her, "You know Mom, when we come to visit, the bathrooms are a bit dirty." And she was embarassed and pointed out how she cleaned them the next time we visited. But now, she's gone lax again. Well actually, she's gone lax for a long time. I suppose it's a case of "out of sight, out of mind".

And again, if it bothers me this much, I've got to suck it up and do something about it. The next time we visit, I'm coming with one of those "bleach bars" and dumping it into the water tank of the commode. And, I'm bringing some simple cleaning supplies with me.

I'll have another post later in the week where I show pictures of the amount of Dalmatian hair that builds up.