meaning of deep-cleaning when a flick of a dustcloth should be enough So let�s see, what�s up with me? Currently, I am taking a break from cleaning the house. The ILs arrive on Wednesday afternoon, and like all good Daughter-In-Laws, I feel the instinct to deep-clean the domicile because of the possible judgement of the MIL on my domestic abilities. I don�t know why we tend to be hard-wired this way. We all grew up in houses that tended to get cluttered and didn�t get vacuumed as often as probably needed and occasionally just got oversprayed with air freshener when dang it, the notion of scrubbing the carpet was just too much to handle. So far today, I�ve wiped down the stove, cleaned all the drip pans, scrubbed the bathroom countertops and the bathroom floors around the toilets (where the mop just won�t work well), cleaned the bathroom mirrors, scrubbed out the microwave, and vacuumed and steam-cleaned the carpet in the den. That was all today. Now, MIL had six kids. Sure, she was mostly a stay-at-home Mom, but I�ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that that house wasn�t always clean. She had better things to do. MIL loves to garden, and probably had one of the first totally xeriscaped lawns in Tucson. Hubster remembers all the rocks appearing one day in the front yard, which then became the raddest place to play with his Star Wars� action figures. He did lose Chewbacca�s cross-bow thing once the gravel got all raked out, though. Poor kid. MIL actually won a prize for her lawn, which was totally novel at the time (the early 1970�s) � the idea of doing desert landscaping when you lived in a desert? Wow! MIL was also always quilting, knitting, sewing, and she built nifty cabinets for the family room. She was grafting lime and lemon trees together to see what she�d end up with. She was growing roses and lettuce and tangerines and ponytail palms. She was playing with the dog. She was going to soccer games and track meets and traveling the world and playing the piano and reading great books. Cleaning the house? Phooey! So why am I putting myself through this? Well, because. I�m the Daughter-In-Law. It�s compulsory. Not that it makes sense. But we�re talking about the Matters of the In-Law Universe. It not going to make sense. It just is.
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