2003-04-04 - 3:26 p.m.

Scrubbing Floors
How Clean Does It Have to Be?

Every Friday my mother used to scrub the kitchen floor, often on her hands and knees. The reason she chose Friday was so that the kitchen would be clean for the Sabbath.

She liked to tell the story of how she once did it on Thursday night, because she felt the beginnings of labor. (My brother was born the next morning.) After years of feeling guilty � that was her intent, of course � I asked her why she insisted on scrubbing the floor that night. After all, God would understand. If she ever told that story again, it was not in my presence. (I never asked her what happened the following week; new mothers stayed in the hospital for two weeks at that time.)

Despite her good example, I was never that compulsive about the floor. I had other priorities. I wanted it clear and dry enough that no one would slip and fall, and generally that was enough. Kids are as neat as they�re going to be, and what you do has no direct effect. Son is compulsively neat; U.D. can walk past the same item on the floor and never stop to pick it up.

My kitchen is spacious but contains a lot of furniture to move. Generally, whenever I was trying to wash the floor, someone would come walking through. (Not just toddlers, mind you; Husband is a past master of interruption.) Occasionally I would have a babysitter take the kids to the park for a couple of hours just so I could wash the whole floor at one time. Otherwise, I spot-cleaned. When Husband spills something, his attitude is, �it�ll dry.� I spot-cleaned a lot.

Mother moved into a home with a smaller kitchen and devised an easier way to clean her floors. She�d pour a little liquid cleaner into a glass, fill it with hot water, and throw the contents of the glass onto the floor. Then she�d just mop it up. Have you seen the ads for those floor-cleaning �systems�? My mother was ahead of her time.

I found that I could use Mother�s method for half the kitchen at a time, which worked well until Husband retired. Then it was, �the floor is wet? I wanted a cup of coffee.� There�s no planning ahead; he will want coffee because the floor is wet.

Back to spot cleaning, until wet Swiffers came out. It�s still spot cleaning, I guess, but the spot�s bigger.

Why did this occur to me now? This week is the ?th anniversary of that infamous Thursday floor washing. Happy birthday, little brother!

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