Straw. Camel’s back

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We got home from the pub about an hour ago, a spring in my step given that we had secured first place in the meat raffle. Again. Yes! I can assure you that there are others there who also are in the running, somehow we just keep on winning. No Macdonald is complaining. And there is always the elusive badge draw with the cold hard cash on offer that we are yet to get. YET.

We got home, put the kids to bed and it was as I was walking down the hallway that I spotted a strange shadow on the hallway table. I walked closer and yes, YES it was. It was a DUST SHADOW. As in, I could see that there was a layer of dust SO thick that it had it’s own shadow. A wipe of my finger across the surface proved true…I indeed have let things slip around here. My cheat clean that I wrote a few weeks ago is no longer cutting the mustard.

It was then when I showed Rob that he mentioned to me that he was going to get stuck into the bathrooms over the weekend. Now for Rob, to comment on the state of the bathrooms, well, it’s SAYING SOMETHING. And of course he should help, and of course he does, but HE MENTIONED SOAP SCUM.

I don’t even know who I am anymore.

A fraud. I used to be someone who had a clean home. I did!

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So I did what any (in)sane person would do at 8.30pm at night. I cleaned the SHIT out of the bathrooms. Both of them. And the extra toilet. 3 scrubbed toilets. 2 showers. 1 bath. I dusted every surface in the house. Because: ROB MENTIONED SOAP SCUM. I didn’t even know he knew that was a thing.

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I’m wondering at what point is your camel’s back broken? I mean it doesn’t have to be in the cleaning stakes…how long do the toe nails have to be before you cut them? The roots done? The car cleaned? The shopping done. What’s the tipping point? A dust shadow? Someone mentioning something?

If anyone needs me, I’ll be wiping down the skirting boards….

Comments

  1. I have recently discovered those kitchen wipes for the bathroom. I keep them in the bottom drawer of the vanity and wipe it over every other day after I clean my teeth. Game Changer!

    • Ooooh I need to get me some of those!

      • I advocate the bathroom wipes too! Perfect for maintaining for every day, I really only have to scrub sink/shower about once a month if I keep up with the wipes most days. And the shower squeegee! And that Bam Power off product is the shiz. Step 1. Remove all items from basin and surrounds. Step 2. Spray magic foam all over surfaces…wait for 5mins for foam to work it’s foamy magic. 3. Wipe off! Super clean shinyness all over. Smells good too!
        Same for method for shower.
        Brilliant. Actually potentially a fun chore! Craziness…

  2. Oh man, I so get this!!!

    I have been recovering from ankle surgery for 6 weeks. That equates to 6 weeks of no dishes, no groceries, little washing of clothes, little folding and putting away of clothes. We have had a lovely cleaner come in a few times and a gardener. On the surface, all looks calm – but…. open a cupboard or a drawer and you will see I have not been putting things away for a long time!! I am so grateful for all the help, I cannot thank those people enough. But, next week, I am sorting out the linen cupboards and re-colour arranging my shirts, the husband is missing all sorts of clothing and, sigh, don’t get me started on pantry or Tupperware cupboard. Tipping point: yesterday!!!! Great post!!!

    • You know things are bad when you are excited about sorting out your linen cupboard!! Hope you are on the mend soon and back to your normal standards x

    • Carolyn says

      I bet you have fabulous nails though! I just had my appendix out and had a similar situation, the house went to custard, and I went slowly nuts but without doing all that cleaning
      my nails looked fab. Before you get stuck into all that housework that’s slowly driving you batshit crazy, go get your nails shellacked then sit back and admire. Call me shallow but it brought a smile to my dial for days… 🙂

  3. Kristine says

    My tipping point came yesterday. Being a first time mum I’m just starting to feel like I’m getting on top of things. You know juggling a new baby and breast feeding AND keeping the house fairly decent so my partner doesn’t come home to a house that looks unrecognisable. And we are 11 weeks in so it’s a shock to me that it’s taking me this long to adjust ( I am a pa to a neurosurgeon pre-motherhood and usually very organised!) then our Maltese terrier came in to the babies room while I’m feeding and proceeded to scootch across the new rug arse first spreading shit, yes shit everywhere! I was beside myself! There were tears, countless crazy lady messages to my partner, more tears and a cleaning frenzy! Where I found all sorts of stuff I haven’t slip. I completely understand what you mean.

    • Oh Kristine! I know EXACTLY how those first 11 weeks feel. Biggest adjustment you will ever make in your life so well done…you’re almost there! Enjoy that clean house xx

    • Victoria says

      I’m so sorry Kristine but that story made me LAUGH! Not *at* you I promise.

      • Kristine says

        Please don’t be sorry Victoria. I too can laugh now that I have a few days to calm down and I’m glad that someone else can see the funny side as well! And in fairness my beautiful partner did bring me home some gorgeous flowers and said ” I’m sorry you had a “shit” day!”

  4. I am thinking you should have just cracked open that bottle of wine and said bugger it to the soap scum……are you a Virgo????? Holy hell…..I think I need you to come up and train me, you should see the state of my home, although all the children are in bed and I WAS just considering whipping around and sorting things out…but then I saw your blog post…..

    • I am a Leo – I do feel I have virgo tendencies though. Maybe. OK, a lot.

      • Mrshanksy says

        I am a Virgo with Leo tendencies. My friend from pre-school (she is a Leo and we are 40 now) still refuses my official star sign. I am most definitely cusp-like (24th Aug) clean freak, organised and analytical but loud and proud and def Leo-like too and it gives me an excuse for when I let the clean stuff/perfectionist thing slip!

  5. For me it’s when all of those things show up at once. I can stand a little dust, a messy bathroom, etc., but only one at a time. More than one of those things simultaneously gets me moving.

    I do wish, however, that the dog would quit drooling on the clean tile floor EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY!!!!

    • That’s what happened with me Cyndy…I can cope with soap scum in isolation but add dirty floors AND dust clouds and I’m done!

  6. JUST THIS MORNING Rocco was cleaning his teeth saying YUCK. YUCK. And Dave went in to check and remarked on how bad the basin was.

    Housewife lament: Nobody notices what we do until we don’t do it.

    I grabbed the Nifty and Windex and cleaned the hell out of that basin. The cleaning products are still sitting there in the dirty bathroom, but at least the basin’s clean.

  7. Lisa Mckenzie says

    What Eden said!So true.

  8. Mrs Woog says

    Did my roots tonight over the bathroom sink. And that is as good as it gets x

  9. Josephine says

    I’m not a natural housekeeper, so I can teeter on that edge for quite a long time. I’m usually broken by stepping on a sharp toy or the appearance of a cockroach in more than one room in the same week.
    Funny you should post this now as I’ll be attempting a deep clean this morning – we have a tradie coming later and I really don’t want him to see the current state of affairs 😉

  10. Lisa Aherne says

    Ants! Ants are tipping me over the edge. It is raining gently here and I woke up to a trail of the little black beasties heading back across the kitchen bench from my sink. Can see no reason for them to be there, but a major scrub of kitchen is on the agenda for today.

    • OH yes…we had a house that had ants. It was terrible. I didn’t cope well…at all. Ant rid was good I recall. Good luck!

  11. As soon as I got made f/t at DTLL, I sent a proposal to Davey Boy that simply said,

    “we’re getting a cleaner”

    And so that’s what we did.

    I love my Annie Tuedays.

    Best thing? I can claim it on tax because I work from home?!

    … who’s the fraudster now 😉

  12. Bloody skirting boards get dusty as you walk away from cleaning the bastards!

  13. I have been having health issues since mid November including surgery and chemo… Just last week I was lying in bed and damn…all I could smell was DUST!!! Sooooooo I got my hubby to drag out the vacuum cleaner….move out the bed and clean the crap out from under the bed….BUT I could still smell bloody dust…The rest of the day was spent vacuuming and dusting EVERYTHING from tops of the bookcase, display units, behind lounges etc etc etc!!! You know what??…..I can still smell DUST…must be a chemo thing….ah well at least the house is clean again….poor hubby was pleased to go back to work on Monday!

  14. Natalie says

    Definitely when the beds have been unmade for several days. I hate getting in to a messy bed. Even if everything else is untidy I usually make the beds.

    My second tipping point comes when I have waited for days/weeks for hubby to do his jobs. That always results in a melt down of nuclear proportions!!

  15. Chrissie says

    When you get sprung….ohhhhhh the shame of it

  16. Ugh, I can see dust shadows right now! A couple of times recently I have proceeded to clean the kitchen after feeding the baby at about 3am. I have a terrible habit of leaving the dishes after dinner and I HATE it.
    I also had a straw-breaking-back moment re: mice two days ago when I opened the lid of the washing machine to find a DEAD MOUSE ON TOP OF A CLEAN LOAD OF WASHING!!!! Yukkkk! Bring on the completion of our new house in a few months!

  17. For me the tipping point is when I can no longer go barefoot inside as the floors are too disgusting. Just about there right now.

  18. I’m certainly no clean freak, but when I picked up the baby (who has just started commando crawling) and saw a dusty, grubby white wondersuit tummy I though, yep. Probably time to get on that…

  19. 3 months pregnant with my 4th…I went out last Thursday night passing hubby at the gate. Before I reached my destination I had a text say “house looks amazing babe, well done!”…..the truth, it was just cleaner than what it had been for the last 3 months. We can’t do it all, all of the time. It’s just which ball you don’t mind dropping.

  20. Cheekiechops says

    Mondays I would SWOOP by 730am on the house when everyone is out, started with the front porch, sweep that …then move room by room, washing, mopping, dusting, cooking, all to my music or a podcast. Then I shout myself lunch and coffee in a nice cafe with a new mag or newspaper. Totes set myself up for the working week and smug as all buggery. So now, I hate working Mondays for that very reason, only two more months of this contract and we are back to normal. Fridays are the quick cheat cleans.
    Kitchen/Bathroom wipes and bleach and eucalyptus oil are my best friends.

  21. THIS is why I will only ever have one bathroom. #lazy

  22. mermaid says

    Constant battle against dust but no soap scum. Could be due to no soap (liquid soap like Radox Coconut Rush) but also application of Shower Power after showering and wipe down with microfibre cloth.

  23. Now, my camel’s back and my husband’s camel’s back are two veeerrryyy different things – and not in the way you think it might be. His level of cleanliness is borderline OCD, I know I should embrace it, encourage it, most women friends applaud my neat freak hubby and look on enviously. But seriously, he puts cleanliness and sheer scrubbing and sweeping and tidying and wiping above a lot of other things, which is what bothers me. I’ll sit in reasonable untidyness for awhile, right now the dishes need to be done, sure, the floors vacuumed, yes, I did clean the bathroom yesterday though, but he walks in the door after work and literally shudders at my ‘filth’. Pffft, bugger him. Don’t get me started on the washing, folding, ironing of clothes and the filing of paperwork scenario. Weeeeeiiirrrdddoooo. Pantry and freezer organisation is also his favourite past time. And chopped wood stacking. In fact…I think I’m married to YOU! AAAAAHHHHH!

    • I would like to spend some time with you both…especially for hints from the hubby! Have you started nesting yet?!! I washed our front door when I was pregnant with Daise!

  24. Rach aka stinkb0mb says

    Guv has done the same in the past – commented on how the floor needs the vac running over it, the toilet needs a scrub, the basin in the bathroom needs a clean.

    To which he gets told – the vac is in the laundry, as is the bleach and the toilet brush is right next to the toilet and the stuff to clean the bathroom basin is under said basin.

    I work part-time and I do clean the house BUT house cleaner is NOT my official title and some days/weeks, I just don’t feel like doing it and if he has a problem with that [which he never does these days, surprise surprise!] he’s more than welcome to do it himself 😉

  25. Our house must have been looking like a total shithole, cos Saturday morning Chris piped up with “let’s clean the house together” – WHICH HE NEVER DOES. And lo and behold in 2 hours the house was looking flipping fantastic. I took that as my opportunity to exclaim, “look how amazing the house can look in such a short time when we clean together!” (not entirely sure he took the hint, but it was worth a shot)…

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