Oh dear, the arrival of some Spring sunshine has really shown up the grubbiness of the house in a big way. Last Friday evening the energy-saver lightbulb on the upstairs landing finally gave up the ghost. Neither of us are sure how long it had been used for but six years as an absolute minimum. Considering that this light is left on all night every night it has done sterling work over those past six years. Anyway, as we had to get a small stepladder out to change the bulb I asked P to fetch down the rather nice 1930's hanging glass light shade at the same time so that I could give it a rinse out. Oh dearie me, that thing was thick in dust and full of dead insects - yuk. Once it had been given a gentle wash in warm soapy water and carefully dried and hung back up (it's not ours but belongs to the landlord so I'm uber careful with it), I kept having a look at it and thinking how lovely it was to see it so clean. And that led to me looking carefully at lots of other items that don't get taken down to be cleaned as often as they should.
Today I've been taking down net curtains, cleaning the inside of the windows, hoovering behind the settee and generally trying to clean some frankly disgustingly dusty and murky corners of our home. The inside of the living room windows were a positive health hazard - although it really can't be that long since I cleaned them - and I was shocked by the black residue that came off when I cleaned, and by the swags of cobwebs that were intertwined around the curtain track. Good grief, where does all the dust and grime come from? We don't even live on a busy road! When we lived in Billericay we had the main Southend to Liverpool St railway line at the bottom of our garden and I always swore that the copious amounts of dust in that house came from the chippings on the rail bed. Sadly, as the railway track must be at least half a mile away from this house, I can't use that excuse here. Tomorrow I've got my eye on the floor-length curtains in the dining room, and I'm too ashamed to admit how long it is since those have been washed!!
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