Exhaustion

I spent the last couple ‘o days (e.g. the weekend) cleaning up around the house, or more specifically, the part of the house I live in.  I spent Saturday cleaning my bathroom (something I had not done in quite some time, I might add) and the hallway, and for the first time in a long time, I actually mopped.  Or, I Swiffered, rather, as I don’t know how to use a mop and bucket.

Anyhoo, I scrubbed the floors down in the hall and washroom, and got rid of a lot of grime that had built up over the past… few months since the last time I bothered cleaning.  I was actually pretty impressed with how well the Swiffer WetJet worked.  For the longest time I thought those sorts of things were simply fads, and that they probably didn’t provide any better of a cleaning job than traditional products.   (That might still be the case of course, since whenever I try to use a mop I just end up spreading the dirt around, since I’ve never been taught the proper method for its use.)

After focusing on the floors, I ended up taking a duster (a Swiffer Duster, at that) to the walls and what-have-you to get rid of cobwebs, etc.  I also cleaned the toilet, sink, shower–the whole shebang.  It’s not that I don’t clean those often (the only thing I find myself too lazy to clean are the floors, really) but I figured I might as well do it all at once.  Once I felt that the bathroom and hallway had been sufficiently scoured, I decided to take a break before cleaning my bedroom.  Although that never… actually happened.  In fact, I put it off until today, Sunday.

When I woke up this morning, I immediately started to clean up.  I didn’t go through my usual routine of preparing myself for the day, as I knew I wouldn’t be leaving the house at all anyway.  I didn’t see the need to be clean myself, if I was just going to work up a sweat cleaning my surroundings.  So after foregoing my traditional morning shower, I started planning out my … plan for cleaning my room.

I took stock of everything I wanted to move, and where I wanted to move it.  I decided which parts of the room I should tackle first, and I even went so far as to put it off for nearly two hours, claiming I was working by planning things out so thoroughly.  It’s not that I didn’t want a cleaner room, it’s that I just didn’t feel up to cleaning it until I had fully awoken.  Surprisingly enough I didn’t feel the need to eat something before cleaning.

After lolly-gagging and dragging my heels as long as I could, I got up, started to clean up the various cans or dishes I had sitting around the room, and took a bunch of them upstairs.  I picked up any trash or old receipts I had neglected to clean up when I had been using them, and started to throw them into a large Sears bag.  After I was sure I had found all of the trash, I went out into the hallway, and started making a pile of things that had to go upstairs, including trash, laundry, and a few things I had brought down and never bothered returning.

I quickly discovered my innate sense of slothfulness again, and ended up sitting back down at my laptop to check the news once more.  One of the reasons I do my cleaning on the weekend is that there isn’t enough to distract me from the task at hand.  I usually rue the weekends, since there’s never any new news posted on my usual list of sites that I check, but in this case, it worked out for me.  I ended up seeing a tweet from @ustream talking about “Weird Al” Yankovic being the guest on some show I had never heard of, and saw that it was on in one-and-a-half hours.

I wanted to watch this show, so I decided to do my best to be finished cleaning by 5:00 PDT.  With a renewed sense of energy (and some awesome tunes playing in the background) I set back about my task of cleaning, and started to put things into storage, bring others out of storage, put things back on shelves, put my laundry all in one place, and pick up all the remotes, controllers, USB cables (there were 8 of them on the floor, not including ones running from controllers or other devices to consoles or my TV/cable box), and other small bits of whatever off of the floor.

By that point I felt ready to vacuum, so I made the trek upstairs to retrieve the vacuum cleaner, as well as take everything that needed to go back up there… back up there.  After returning cutlery, dishes, and various bottles and cans to their rightful places… I realized I hadn’t eaten anything, and found myself famished.  It was around that time that I made myself up a few toasted Dijon turkey and Swiss submarine sandwiches from scratch.  They were delicious.

Afterwards I came back downstairs with the vacuum, and… proceeded to sit back at the computer.  I switched the music playing from the iTunes DJ (it’s just what Apple calls “random”) to one of my Apoptygma Berzerk playlists–specifically one containing tracks from 7 and The Apopcalyptic Manifesto–as I find they’re great to clean up to.

After finally moving the last things back wherever they had to go, I unplugged my heater, and put it on my bed.  I followed suit with my Rock Band 2 Drum Set, the caddy I keep my remotes and various cables in/on, and my laundry basket and bag.  By that point it was 4:47, so I decided to quickly vacuum before “Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show” started on Ustream.  After a few minutes of figuring how the hell the vacuum worked (I put the thing together, you think I’d remember how it worked!) I set it to the proper setting for my carpet, and went around the room… vacuuming.

I’m sure you’ve all vacuumed before, so I’ll spare you the details. (And if you haven’t vacuumed, you don’t know what you’re missing.  Lower back pain is awesome, by the way.)

Anyway, by the time I was done, the show was just starting, and I discovered that Al wouldn’t be on for a few more minutes most likely, so I skipped the opening dialogue/monologue, and grabbed a drink, put the vacuum away, and put the stuff in my room back where it was before.  I then spent about.. two and a half hours watching the aforementioned show before realizing I never got around to putting my bedding on to wash.

And come to think of it… I never took it out and put it on to dry!

October 25, 2009 · Filed Under Journal, Projects, Weatherlight

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