Spring cleaning

Every Saturday night, my Sunday, I try to make a habit of cleaning two rooms. It's about the lamest way I can think of spending my final hours of free time for the week, but recently I discovered the secret to making cleaning fun. Joe and I are both pretty neat. We don't make much of a mess, so if I alternate between two parts of the lodge from week to week, in theory I can keep ahead of the dirt and grime. The reality is however, sometimes I don't get around to cleaning on Saturday, or even Sunday, and things start to fall apart. The result is never pretty. One could imagine, that as I try and pack my weekends full of activities, it's real easy to get to Saturday night and find that laying on the couch with a cold beer and a full belly is far more appealing than scrubbing and huffing bleach fumes. I can think of a few occasions where I've found myself scrubbing bathroom tiles with a toothbrush wondering how it was that only a few hours earlier I was carving lines on my board in the backcountry. It seemed like in scrubbing the scum away, I was also scrubbing away how good my weekend had been. Then I figured two things out. First, I needed some new tile cleaner to cut through the soap scum. Second, I just needed to pump my system so full of endorphins before I cleaned that it didn't matter what I was doing. The iron and sulphur in the groundwater here builds up to leave some nasty stains on the tub and tiles. I recently picked up some serious shower cleaner that really cuts through it though. When I paired up my new foaming chemical spray at the end of a particularly spectacular recent weekend, I was blown away by what happened. Instead of slowly becoming disappointed that after an epic adventure of a weekend I was again staring at a wall scrubbing away fruitlessly, I started wiping away at the shower walls like I was carving lines in the side of a mountain. Oh ya, it was that good. Armed with a stiff bristled brush and scratchy sponge, I sudzed up the wall and easily returned the tiles back to their aqua blue color. On to the tub, where the sulphur had left ugly yellow and orange water patterns. The two disappeared with only a little more elbow grease. "This is great," I found myself thinking as the floor of the shower turned back to its former off-white color. I moved on to the dreaded porcelain bowl, the sink, the mirror and finally mopped up the floor. By the time I was done I was so pleased with my job only one thing was on my mind, "Could I have a bathroom cleaning this good next weekend too?"

Also, happy April Fools Day to ya.