Avoidance

So what is it about me and vacuuming that makes me want to do just about anything to avoid it? I don’t remember having this problem a couple of years ago. I would dutifully haul out the vacuum and suck up all those hairballs, dust bunnies, kitty litter tracks, and food crumbs with nary a whimper. Why would I now rather spend time ironing T-Man’s shirts, picking the blueberries, weeding and watering the garden, knitting, reading the free newspapers, washing dishes, and even — heaven help me — type up this here blog instead? If I don’t try to do the whole house at once but stick to one level at a time, it’s neither painful nor onerous. But I’m having trouble convincing myself to start. I’ve put it off so far for about, oh…say, a couple of weeks! Just One Floor, darn it. Move!

It’s not working. I’m still typing.

There’s actually a compelling reason to vacuum. I’m trying to get tidied up so my daughter and her friend can come over tomorrow and play in my dye studio. Not that my daughter cares a fig about tidiness but I can’t stand crunching on the kitty litter that my multi-toed cats track all over the basement and up the stairs. And it’s a housewife thing, you know? Along with cleaning the brown stains out of the toilet and making sure there’s a clear path to the doors. Hygiene and safety are important. Yup! Get moving, Damselfly.

It’s not working. I’m still typing.

Maybe I’ll head over to my LYS and get some more yarn to dye. And then come home and wind some skeins. Maybe by then T-Man will be home and I can convince him that I need him to vacuum for me. Nah, that would be mean. After all, he just worked an entire 8-hour day while all I did was avoid my housework. Get. Going. Girl.

Oh, ALL RIGHT already! But not until I go buy more yarn first.

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Ummm…3 hours later and I’m still here. But the house is vacuumed! All 3 floors. And the bathroom is clean. All by myself I wrestled with the giant man-eating dust bunnies and put most of the jillion baby spiders outside. (Sorry to the ones I squished or sucked up! All those webs were not attractive.) Now I’m too tired to go anywhere. There’s always tomorrow. Right now I need to relax a little — and get my shoulders massaged.

So why does a house with only 2 people in it, one of whom is gone 9 hours a day/5 days a week, plus 2 cats, who sleep at least 20 out of 24 hours, get so darn dirty? Oh.