What's that Smell? (Part Two)

 

“Mom, it STILL smells in here.”

“I know! It’s weird, right? I took the trash out but it’s still pretty smelly.”

 

The kitchen was gleaming now. Bathrooms were cleaned, living room tidy and even dusted. A load in the dryer clunked and clunked in the room upstairs. It’s been a pretty productive morning, but…
 
Still that smell…
 

Some days, you just actually have to clean.

Some days you do the 20-minute “hide-things-and-wipe-off-whatever-people-will-see” kind of clean.

 

We’ve been doing that a lot lately.

In the last month or so our home has been the venue for a gigantic Thanksgiving dinner, a birthday party, and several Bible study groups, plus the usual run-of-the-mill play-dates. Which is super fun but...

 

(Spoiler alert for those who are coming to my house soon: Seriously, I don’t deep clean every time someone is scheduled to come over.)

 

We have mastered the “get-it-put-somewhere-and-take-care-of-it -later” method of cleaning up.

I used to throw miscellaneous messes into laundry baskets and stow them in my closet until the guests were gone (or until I couldn’t find what I was looking for, then I’d search long forgotten laundry baskets) but the layout of THIS house isn’t conducive to that, so new methods of “make this mess disappear” have been invented.

 Last week, right before several guests came over, the need to have an empty kitchen sink took hold of me.

 

I can’t have a sink full of dirty dishes and a house full of guests!! Who wants their guests to see a sink full of dirty dishes? Not me!

 

The dishwasher was already running.

Hmm, not going to wash these, stacks of cups…why do we use SO MANY cups? Forks and a skillet. Hmm…

 

PING! The light goes on in my head.

 

I’ll stick them in this, and this, plastic containers, put them in the cabinet UNDER the sink (which for whatever reason I NEVER use) a qwick swipe with the scrubber and – voila - clean kitchen sink!

 

That was last week.

 

Today, what’s that smell? And where are all the cups?

Oh.

 

Load the dishwasher, light a candle. Time to clean (before my guests come over tonight).