filth

[ritaxis]

So I have one of those newfangled bagless vaccuum cleaners. I thought the point of advances in cleaning technology was to make the house cleaner while exposing the cleaner to less direct contact with filth, but it doesn't seem to be the case with this contraption. I'm tapping out the dust from the paper filter after every use as directed, leaving piles of fine mauve dust all over everything within a fifteen-foot radius, including myself. Clearly I am doing this wrong.

And after every sixth use, I'm supposed to take it apart and wash it. Done: and also, I have to wash the area where I washed it (my bathroom in this case) and take a bath.

On the other hand, I don't have to buy bags, and that's a plus.

I have vaccuumed my old futon. I am debating calling that enough rather than trying to figure out how to find and rent a steam cleaner. I want to put a waterproof cover on it anyway.

And then I need three strong bodies to help me get it up the stairs.

Did I ever tell you how steep my bedroom stairs are? Because they are. Steep. And I have been up and down them many, many times this last four days, hauling boxes and baskets of stuff up and down. I have much, much more to do, but I have cleared the floor of the back room enough to lay the mattress down and work on it, and the library floor is swept for the first time in months and clear enough to drag the mattress through on its way upstairs, and their is light at the end of the tunnel for the living room and the room-to-be-eventually-rented.

The dog and cat think this is all hilariously unnerving. My hands are wrecked, of course, but only to the extent that they wake me up with pain, not to the extent of not being able to hold things in them.

I primed the closet floor yesterday, and bought a beautiful shade of cool indigo for it, and now I am about to go put that blue paint there.

I was supposed to buy wall paint but I hit a dilemma and I must consult with Zack first. Shall I buy the nice whiteywhite -- a bit whiter than I wanted, really -- that there's only two gallons of, of should I buy the slightly less nice offwhite that's a bit darker than I imagined that there's a five gallon tub of?

I was also supposed to lightly sand the old wood on the weird angley windows in preparation for painting them but when I went to do it they just kept getting more diseased looking and splintery and again I must consult with Zack.

Comments

[pameladean]

I always wondered about those vacuum cleaners. I guess I'll stick with the cheap Hoover that has a HEPA filter in it. Although its carpet-cleaning bit has just gone wonky and is making a noise a lot like pocketa-pocketa-queep, only very loud.

Good luck with your painting. I always find the prep and the cleanup infuriating.

P.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

What I hate hate hate is that I always always always get some paint where it shouldn't go and when I try to clean it up it's like the Cat in the Hat and his pink bathtub ring, spreading farther and farther.

The first coat took so little paint that you can't really tell that any has been used.

[pameladean]

That happens to me too, no matter how much masking tape or how small a brush I'm using, and it drives me nuts. It's not even usually pink, either.

It sounds like your wood is eating up the paint, which I guess shows it did need painting.

P.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I don't see the benefit if you have to keep cleaning everything! I have wood laminate, which is just dust-mopped and then lightly water-mopped. And I have a cleaning lady to do that once every four weeks because I can't.