Spring Cleaning

I organized a group clean today. Sunday.

I decided on a late morning 2 hours, figuring everyone could sleep in, and still have all afternoon to do as they wished. I tried hard not to overplan the task, but this morning I offered and even pushed a little to do it to music. It's a cover really. I have no experience or clarity about dividing up the tasks, and I'm trying to balance my push and organizing with the proverbial "spoon full of sugar."

While I coordinated our date and time last week, I suggested an ordered list to work top down. Then today I just suggested each person do a room. TJ said he'd do the kitchen, but when no one specifically wanted any other space, I assigned rooms. I provided multiple buckets and rags, spray bottles of our fresh smelling cleaner, and offered everyone rolls of paper towels. We were off.

I admit suggesting a task order satisfied my need to tell everyone what I wanted done. "Start by knocking down spiderwebs and ceiling dust." (That's something even my professional cleaners never consistently did. Granted, they were a cooperative of small Latina women, and while I loved how well they cleaned, the tops of my 6-foot bookshelves didn't get cleaned every time either.) So now, by giving everyone the direction to, "wipe all the bookshelves, including the tops, and picture frames", I was saying "I want you to be sure to do this." 

But I sounded nicer.

I don't have multiples of everything. We are sharing the ceiling duster, the window cleaner and two brooms, and that actually is a good thing. It keeps us interacting with each other, even as we work our own rooms. Like a wolf pack rubbing shoulders as they run."Oh, you're here. I feel that."

Two great things happened. Well, many things actually. My house is Spring clean and without saying so, we all decided to leave the curtains pulled back and the blinds pulled completely up so the sunlight fills the rooms.

And everyone found their own rhythm as their own style of cleaning took over. It worked well. They asked if they wanted direction, and I was aware of the different work patterns. Some were systematic. Others were not. Some stayed to their room. Others wandered beyond, and helped in the next room, or wandered outside finding another I'll-just-clean-this-too  task. Setting the two hours as cleaning time gave everyone a framework to keep going, and allowed enough deep cleaning by our five people of different cleaning levels to make a nice difference. We felt like we had a clean house. And we did it together.

For me, what was best beyond it happening really well together, was cleaning didn't overwhelm me. This is a big house. I don't do all I want to do because there's just too much. Today, I took the downstairs bathroom and the laundry room, and with only two rooms to focus on, I could really drill down and clean them. I wiped the washer and dryer inside and out, and was able to wash the filter and scrub away the grunge that builds up in the curved corners of the metal lids and agitator that no one has time to worry about. I did that for my housemates who use someone else's appliances. And I did it for me.

We have Phase II construction starting in 3 weeks, and all this pretty clean will get messed up. Hell, the stove got splattered during dinner tonight. But then we will come together again in June to clean away the dust and grime of our new place. Together. It was the best cleaning day I've every had!