Been
wondering about vacuuming lately.
I’m
guessing almost all of us have had our personal schedules flipped
around over the past year or two, whatever the reason. And, like
you, I have my routines for washing clothes, doing the dishes,
and other assorted chores around the house.
Let’s
consider laundry for a moment. I prefer hanging clothes outside
to dry when I can. Just something about it that feels different.
It feels better, especially when there is a slightly cool breeze
carrying the scent of Downey around the house. So, during the
summer (or any season where I get a day or two of warmer weather),
I will at times check the forecast just to make sure it’s not
going to rain and adjust my plans to wash clothes accordingly.
Do
I do laundry once a week? Sure, that sounds about right. Do I
shift my schedule depending on some other factors? Yup. I do.
And
that leads us back to the vacuum.
I
do not vacuum every day. Not even every week. Yes, I have been
known to leave the vacuum undisturbed in the hall closet for more
than a month. It happens, and I admit it.
But
when do I feel the need to break that vacuum cleaner out? And
that one, well, I don’t know if I have an answer.
I
think all of us clean when necessary. Drop some tomato sauce on
the kitchen floor, or the dogs track in some mud, and the reaction
is pretty obvious. Clean up in the mud room, now. And that’s fair.
When
I was in college, my roommates and I had a handful of apartment
cleaning marathons each year. Light cleaning regularly. Days were
set aside for the deep cleaning. The cleaning where furniture
gets moved.
Do
you dust? When? Heck, if the dust falls uniformly on a surface,
and stays that way, perhaps no dusting is required. Right? As
long as no one messes it up by touching it and leaving marks where
the streaks of fingers expose the level of dust in existence,
all is well.
And
again, that brings us back to the vacuum.
If
you really can’t see anything wrong with the way the floors look,
is there a need to break out the dustpan and broom? If the carpets
look fine, do they need vacuuming?
Depending
on the web site you visit after conducting your search, you’re
likely going to find that experts say vacuuming should be done
at least once per week. Some experts suggest twice a week. And,
several experts say a professional cleaning at least once per
year is important (and will assist in extending the life of your
carpet). All of which brings about a very important question…
Who
the heck are these experts?
Turns
out, no one knows. Oh, sure, likely floor cleaning professionals.
I get the idea of who could be an expert. But I actually used
three search engines, created terms for how often vacuuming should
be done and who are the vacuuming experts, and I didn’t see one
specific name. “Experts recommend” this… “experts say” that… experts
all over. No names.
And
in the end, the experts don’t know your house anyway. They don’t
know if you have kids. They don’t know about pets. They don’t
know if you work outside. They don’t know if you have a lot of
mud around your house. They don’t know if most of your floors
are hardwood. But vacuum those area rugs once a week. Or twice
a week. Maybe three times a week. Heck, no one really knows, and
you might actually need to vacuum twice every day if the world
is set up against you.
Of
course, this isn’t to say you shouldn’t be vacuuming once or twice
a week. And you probably should dust more often. A clean house
is almost certainly a healthier house. But if the dogs aren’t
outside rolling in the freshly mowed lawn, chances are good you
can wait until tomorrow to do it.