I am not my mother's child - at least when it comes to spring cleaning.
I remember her routine well. Right about now, as soon as the sunshine began to highlight the smudges on the windows, my mother would get to work.
"I'm doing your room this week," she would inform me.
That meant that the walls would be washedyes, washed. The curtains would be laundered and the clothes closet reorganized and the mattress vacuumed. The process would take a weeksometimes twoand involve dozens of dusters, several rolls of paper towels and more than a little Spic and Span. And then she'd move on to another room.
My mother was a woman of her generation.
I don't know whether she learned this ritual from her own mother, or whether she'd read an article in Better Homes and Gardens telling her to get a move on, or whether she possessed a copy of the Good Wife's Manifesto. You know, the manual that instructed her to not only scour the home come spring, but to greet her husband post-work in pearls, heels and a freshly ironed frock.
No matter. She did her thing, and I do mine. And my thing does not involve heels, pearls or frocks, freshly ironed or otherwise.
Sure, spring is here, and sure, I have noticed the smudges on the windows, and sure, I have reached for the glass cleaner and the paper towels.
But that's about it. No wall washing for this gal.
I applaud the resourcefulness my dear mother used to show, but come spring, I'd rather ignore the mattress and the clothes closet and do other things. Like get out the bike, say. Or the picnic basket. Or the golf clubs. Or the tennis racket. Or the bocce set.
If other people in my household feel inclined to wash their curtains, more power to them. But chances are, they won't.
If other people want to vacuum the furniture and dust the lampshades and sweep beneath the beds, that would be wonderful. But chances are, they won't.
Our abode, alas, may accumulate many more dust bunnies than my mother would have found acceptable, but heck, that's not the end of the world.
We'll get to the cleaning at some point, I guess. But first, we will focus on spring.
