T Creations

So yesterday I avoided scrubbing bathrooms in favor of scrubbing floors. As you know in order to scrub the floor, you have to first be able to see it. Hence, I picked up toys and and dirty clothes, stuffed animals and scraps of paper including dozens punched circles (Boston’s favorite new craft). I did a quick once over with the broom which actually took about 30 minutes. My entire main floor is tile and Pergo except for my bedroom, which I really like. I think it’s fairly easy to maintain and feels cleaner than wall to wall carpet, especially with kids spilling and tracking everything in and out.

I’m going to plug the Hoover Floormate because if you don’t have one, you don’t know what you’re missing. This baby mops for you! It’s as easy as vacuuming and I think it does as good of job as I can do on my hands and knees, and it does it in a fraction of the time. As if that wasn’t great enough, the wet pickup function works so well that you have virtually no drying time! I wouldn’t kid about something like this. It’s one of my must have cleaning tools. After having one, I really, seriously can’t live without it. (Well I could, but would refuse to scrub floors on my hands and knees, and despise traditional mops. I think they just redistribute dirt; gross!)

So in a few hours, my house smelled better, and I could run around barefoot again and like it. I went to bed last night feeling only slightly guilty that I hadn’t accomplished cleaning the bathrooms, yet again.

This morning was typical. The girls got up for school and commenced to dress and eat. Before breakfast was over we had a bowl of cereal spill on the floor, a 1/4 gallon of milk dumped out on the table, which then of corse splattered all over the rest of the tiles in the dining room that had previously managed to escape the cereal, and a plugged up toilet. I decided to go ahead and hurry and clean up the floor old school, hands and knees style. I’d deal with the toilet when I got back. We quickly finished getting ready for school and I dropped them off just as the first bell was ringing.

When I got home the toilet had drained itself and I, hoping it had also unplugged itself, flushed it. To my dismay, it was still clogged. If that wasn’t enough, the chain came loose and stuck under the flapper, which means the water did not stop when I expected it to. In a panic, I yanked the lid off. While trying to grab a near by towel with my foot and avoid getting spilled and splashed on, I managed to lift up the float, fish out the chain and smash down the flapper. It was only a mere matter of seconds, but it was long enough for the toilet to overflow, flood my bathroom, and start trailing out the door. The towel I’d managed to slide across the floor was soaked and though it managed to contain most of the water from flooding into the rest of the house, it was starting to loose the battle of containment. I grabbed another towel from the laundry room and sopped up the hallway. Once everything was under control I washed my hands and took a deep breath.

I needed a plunger. I scooped up Willow and we ran to the closest store and bought the cheapest plunger, which still cost me $6.99. From there, things were pretty routine. I unplugged the toilet, finished sopping up the water, and threw the towels directly in the washing machine. Then I scrubbed the floor again.

It was at this point in time that I wondered, “Why do I even bother?” On the bright side, I hadn’t already scrubbed my toilets yet! But I couldn’t no longer procrastinate the inevitable. Three toilets later I felt better, if not a little triumphant. My floors were clean yet again and my bathrooms smelled like… well, whatever fresh, sparkling, clean smells like. Maybe it’ll last a whole week?! A couple days? At least until the kids get home from school…

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