I was blessed by a visit by my Great Aunt and Grandmother today, and before they made the venture out to the house I wanted to make sure I was putting my best broom forward. Waking up early so I could get all the nitty gritty sweat out of the way before their arrival and still have time to shower the stink off of me before their arrival, I started my day by wiping down all the counters and tables (I have three - I'm not sure why) making the bed, doing laundry, sweeping the entire house and then running over it with a mop.
On these days of rushed deep-cleaning, when I have four days of work to get done in just a few hours, I suddenly discover that I use muscles scrubbing and mopping, de-greasing and spot-removing, couch pet-hair-removing and HVAC filter cleaning that I don't use on any other project or adventure in my life. For some reason the motion of sweeping is unlike that of mopping, and neither are akin to rowing a boat although it seems like they should be. Scrubbing the toilet uses completely different muscles than scrubbing the sink, and neither are helpful when it's time to churn butter or wash the dog. Tugging at the sheets on a king-sized bed doesn't help to build the same muscles that one might use when pulling vines from trees to swing like Tarzan (or in my case, Jane), and lifting items to dust doesn't seem to be anywhere near the same as bowling.
The positive silver lining to this realization is that cleaning house can be an immense workout when you put your back into it; and it helps to shape and tone your whole body while you bend, lift, squat, push and pull your way towards a clean house. The end result is that not only have I found myself an indoor workout on a day that was close to 97 degrees last time I checked, but I've also ended up with a spotless house that won't need to be cleaned for at least another six hours.
As any person trying to keep a clean house can attest: a lot can happen in six hours.
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