This morning, I did my share of the house cleaning since we don’t have house cleaners here in Lake Las Vegas. We were quoted $250 for a complete cleaning for two hours, and there was no way we were willing to pay that much. Instead, we’ve kept things clean as we worked through each day, leaving the dusting, vacuuming, and floor washing for every other week.
After dinner, I clean the kitchen counters each night while Tom does the dishes. Thus, cleaning the kitchen this morning didn’t take long for me to do a thorough cleaning. Then, I dusted every surface and cleaned the bathrooms. It took me less than 45 minutes, and it feels good to be done. Soon, Tom will vacuum and wash the floors.
It’s good that I fully recovered and have worked out for the past nine days to rebuild my strength and stamina. The bottom line is that I don’t enjoy house cleaning, although the end result is gratifying. In my old life. I had the lovely Teresa clean our house once a week for many years. She was wonderful.
Even though we had her help each week, when cooking and entertaining, I did a lot of cleanup afterward, including daily cleaning after meal prep. Then, of course, those two precious little dogs, Ben and Willie, brought in plenty of dirt and dust, especially during the messy, snow-melting winter months. Eventually, I taught them both to “wipe your feet, get a treat.”
But Ben abused this concept. Once he came inside, wiped his feet, and got his treat, he’d stand at the door whining to go back outside to repeat the process for another treat. This became tiresome, but we laughed nonetheless. Having dogs resulted in lots more cleaning.
Here in Lake Las Vegas, life is simple. We make a mess; we clean it right away. Luckily, both of us are equally tidy and organized, making our daily lives easy. We don’t leave clothes, towels, glasses, or plates of food sitting around. In a way, I suppose it’s one factor that makes our lifestyle of being together 24 hours a day easy and getting along a breeze. Many couples get into scuffles about household tasks. We have no such issues.
Once we arrive in Marloth Park, we’ll have Zef and Vusi come to the house five days a week to clean, make the bed, sweep, wash floors, and dust everything. The dust in the bush is outrageous, requiring daily attention, let alone all the insect residue and gecko poop. We are grateful to have them help us. They are off on the weekends when we make the bed and clean up after ourselves.
We clean up after meals (no dishwasher, except Tom) and do our laundry. Zef and Vusi would do our laundry, but it usually takes two or three days until they can bring it back neatly folded. With our limited clothing supply, we prefer to do our wash. As is typical in Africa, there are washing machines but no dryers. Thus, we hang the clothes on a rack on the veranda. In warm weather, it is usually dry by the end of the day,
Even here in Lake Las Vegas, our condo only has a washer. Tom hauls the bedding down the hallway in a large laundry bag to the laundry room, where we dry it in a dryer using the laundry app on my phone. We hang wet on the indoor laundry rack in the condo twice weekly to add moisture to the air. It’s very dry in Nevada.
Greg and Heather will arrive tomorrow evening. They are staying at Richard’s house. Most likely, we won’t see everyone until Friday, after they are settled. I can hardly wait.
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, February 5, 2015:
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