The Domestic Scene: Can she mop a kitchen floor, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?

I mopped the kitchen floor yesterday. I'd like to say it was the floor's weekly, regularly scheduled mopping, but anyone who knows me would recognize this as a lie. I mopped the floor yesterday and I won't tell you how long it had been (bless me, Father Murphy's Oil, for I have sinned. It has been X months since my last mopping). The interval between moppings will not be revealed here.

 

At several points during that interval, however, I read, by chance, comments on floor-washing. And each author said something like "stand-up mopping just doesn't get the floor clean. You have to get down on your hands and knees . . ." A sentence like that sticks in your head if you have a propensity for guilt.

 

I used to garden a lot, and with great pleasure. I'd crawl around, kneel, get up, dig up plants and move them to someplace else in my little garden. But as my body has aged a little, getting up and down has become less of a pleasure, and I have found that I do less and less gardening. Now, if I won't get down on all fours to garden—which I love—do you think I would do it to mop my kitchen floor? Do you know how to spell "fat chance"?

 

But I did mop my kitchen floor yesterday, as I've said, and the recommendation for hands-and-knees scrubbing was strong in my mind. So here's what I did. I got myself a virgin green nylon scrubby and a small bowl of water to which I added some Murphy's oil soap and a little vinegar. And whenever I passed a corner or an edge—you know what I mean: those grimy, never-cleaned places that the sponge mop can't even get close to, let alone scrub—I put my mop aside and bent down (briefly, each time) with my little scrubby and I actually scrubbed those corners and edges clean!

 

This was a perfect compromise: I didn't have to do the whole floor on my hands and knees, but I did clean some of those areas that the mop can never touch.

 

I can hear you saying "big deal." Most women have clean houses because they know how to clean or they hire someone who does. I don't know how (and it wouldn't make a lot of difference if I did, for I don't want to do it). Nor have I hired anyone to help me. I'd be too embarrassed for her to see my filthy kitchen floor.

 

So it may seem like no big deal to you, but I am thrilled that I have made my kitchen floor cleaner than it usually is--even though I know it's only temporary.

 

Copyright 2007 Ann Tudor
www.anntudor.ca