A new broom

Intending to use the last remaining days of my vacation wisely I chose to dedicate today to cleaning the house and doing laundry. I began by tossing the couch slipcovers into the washer. I am also laundering all of the polar fleece throw blankets as well as catching up the laundry in the hamper. I will be hanging up as much clothing as possible on hangers from the basement ceiling and using the dryer for the blankets, towels, and slipcovers only. My next assignment was cleaning out the refrigerator in preparation for January shopping. I am ashamed to say I had to toss out more things than I care to. We really need to tighten up in this area.
One of my favorite books is Home Comforts:The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendolson  and in this book she advocates cleaning 'wet' areas first and then dry ones. Keeping this in mind I began with the kitchen. A good number of years ago I worked for a house cleaning service (I am one of those rare people who actually enjoy cleaning) and followed a speed cleaning regimen that began with picking the area  to the immediate left of the entrance to a room,working top to bottom and in a clockwise fashion. I cleaned counters, cabinet fronts, appliances, windowsills, and door frames following this method. Then using a swiffer mop I dusted down the walls and caught up a couple of cobwebs near the ceiling, then I swept and mopped my floor (once a month I do a knees on the floor scrubbing but this was done just before the holidays). Kitchen done. I followed the same system cleaning our one working bathroom and then made my way into the upstairs hallway, staircase, living and dining rooms. The 'dry' areas.
Bedrooms are taken care of by the individual whose room it is and since mine is the unheated attic space of our house and our current temperature is hovering just below 20 degrees I declared it clean enough. I love the fresh smelling cleanliness of my home and the feeling that it is all ready for the coming year.
I was about halfway done when my teen daughter arrived home from school (she is on a half day schedule for her senior year) and after chatting a bit we decided on homemade pizza bagels for lunch. I had a bag of plain bagels that I topped with jarred pizza sauce, dabs of fresh mozzarella, some chopped fresh spinach and a few slices of pepperoni. Placed these on a baking sheet and popped them into the oven for about 15 minutes. Fresh clementine slices and hot tea rounded out our meal.