cleaning frenzy

I'm not much of a cleaner. In fact, for years (nearly 20), I've paid a woman to clean the house for me*. But there's lots of "around the edges" stuff to do. Since Robert left yesterday, I've been attending to a good number of those edges.

I've already done three loads of laundry and there's another left to go after I change the bed.

Yesterday, I cleaned out the food cabinets -- we had loads of food that might still be perfectly good after all these years, but chances are slim to none that we'll ever eat it. Gone. I also went after some of the more suspicious items in the refrigerator. It turns out, for example, that even cats aren't impressed by cod liver oil. Oh well, gone.

This morning, I sorted through piles of financial paperwork and shredded almost all of it, then put it in the recycling pile. OK, I'll never be elected to public office, but I think we knew that already. Gone.

I may also think about which books to donate to the swap library at work. (Leave all the books you want; pay a dollar to take a book; the proceeds are donated to charity.)

I feel a little lighter already.



* I mentioned my cleaning lady to a friend recently. They snarkily asked if she was an illegal immigrant and whether she spoke English. She is an immigrant, but she's from Canada, PEI to be specific, so she does speak English. I also happen to know that she pays taxes, so I highly doubt that she's here illegally .