Occupy Household: Fight the Dirt!

October 9, 2011 at 11:11 am (The Easy Chair)

We clean the house every ten years, whether it needs it or not.

Saturday is laundry day. A typical Saturday involves me finishing laundry early and leaving for parts unknown until late in the day. The house is small and busy when everyone is home. But, since I know and love the people in the house, and pay good money for a place to live, might as well hang out with them and get my money’s worth, no?

I’ve been plotting this spring cleaning for a couple years now. It will take more than one Saturday morning to accomplish it all. While I wouldn’t call it baby-steps, I know me. If I expect results, I must approach the project realistically.

Operation OH:FtD! began Thursday, with plans to purchase cleaning gear and storage stuff. Freddie’s had a sale on vacuum cleaners, so I hit up Sister for a ride. $232 later, I had two economy-sized packages of Viva paper towels, (best towel for everything, and I mean everything). Trash bags, storage bags, plastic Tupperware/Rubbermaid storage bins and… drum roll please… a brand-fucking-new steam-cleaner vacuum cleaner with hose attachments. Perfect for pet hair. With seven cats, a dog, a hamster and five long-haired humans, the ‘pet-hair-friendly’ option was a necessity. That’s what killed our last vacuum cleaner.

Home-made espresso to jump my motor. Niece was helpful, fetching Philips screwdrivers and holding screws and ignoring the cuss-words I tried to squelch. It took a few minutes, but I got it all together. Not tempting fate, I chose to experiment with the steam cleaner another time. Flick of the switch, and we had power.

Next up? Mood music. I have been looking for a piece of music since I saw it on one of the cable Music On-Demand channels. Unable to find it on disc for less than $40 on Amazon, I eyeballed the download feature. Would it work? Would I spend $8.99 for a mistake? WTF, one way to find out…

It took a few minutes to download the cloud feature, then install this and do that, but after a bit I was able to find the new file in my Music folder. I fiddled some more, and it was done. I’d just lost my downlaod virginity. Thanks, Kosma!

First thing? Burn it to disc and play it on the big stereo.

That worked so well, I copied it to my MP3 player. All without leaving my house. Much like buying concert tickets, rare books and other things I used to hunt high and low for before the internet came along, I could get used to this.

While I was at it, I burned a couple CDs for Meg. She’s a big fan of Bob Mould and Husker Du, and I’d come across a couple albums. I put them in a pile. What else?

She has a working VCR, so I put some homemade VHS tapes in a bag. Bugs Bunny: 1,000 Rabbit Tales, Heat, The Tao of Steve. Ooh! 1900. Have some culcha, baby…

Excavating the corner of my room unearthed things I hadn’t seen in a decade. I sorted keepsakes into one bin, musty clothing I could (and would) still wear into the laundry pile, but most of the stuff went into a garbage bag. I started a tee-shirt bag for Meg, who likes my throwaways. (And looks good swimming in them, heh…) She was supposedly cleaning her room, and we were to meet up after.

I swept, sorted, swept some more. Initiated the vacuum cleaner. Fired up the washing machine and washed three times the laundry as usual. But it was all stuff I could (and would) wear.

By the time Sis got home, I was exhausted, the coffee had worn off and I was starving. With a bit of nagging and the offer to buy, we secured Papa Murphy’s and my plans for leaving the house evaporated right behind my ambition.

I curled up in front of the ALCS baseball game, and fell asleep. I managed to sleep through a rain delay. Laundry was dried and returned home. I sorted it into my new organized system. Finding socks was never a problem; now it’s really not a problem.

I called and apologized to Meg for not visiting, but she’d spent the day laying around watching TV and enjoying it. I promised to make it up to her.

I finished off Saturday with coconut-lime hemp ice cream and the new Transformers movie. I watched a total of an hour, FFing through the smarmy human-interest parts. It was eye candy, if you are a fan of car crashes and blowing shit up.

And now, it’s time to head back to civilization. Buses have been all messed up, thanks to the ongoing protests. (You couldn’t occupy Lake Oswego, where the millionaires actually live?) It gives me an excuse to go to work early and stop by Meg’s on the way. If I’m late? Look at the news. Traffic is a mess…

Unlike my room.