Why Scrub At All?

Today is the first day of my quarterly Seasonal Scrub: and this is the big one Honey Bee’s, a month long fest of cleaning and scrubbing, dusting, sorting and polishing.  I LOVE it!
Yes indeed. Those who know me will certify that (I need to be certified??) scrubbing is something I actually enjoy. While I generally consider the day to day routines of housekeeping to be rather thankless, when it comes to Autumn cleaning the Brocante way there is a real sense of achievement to be savoured as the days get shorter and we find ourselves cocooned by Winter in houses beaming with cosy pride.
But in this day and age very few housekeepers indulge in a Scrub of any kind, relying instead on haphazard day-to-day routine to keep their homes ticking over in a reasonable state and for the most part this makes for passable homemaking,  but it doesn’t allow for seasonal anomalies. The carefree neglect Summertime inflicts upon our homes.  The Springtime light that reveals dust we were happy to ignore in February candlelight. The aftermath of the chaos that is Christmas….
For every season there is  reason to scrub a little harder so that for that season’s  remainder  we can live exceedingly well: well enough to be able to indulge ourselves in the puttery treats that mark us out as Vintage Housekeepers; well enough to find the time to plan new decorating projects and well enough to make the time to satisfy our most creative souls certain in the knowledge that the slimy grime building up behind the bathroom taps isn’t calling our name.
While it may seem to you to be a horrible waste of time and effort: by scheduling seasonal batches of intensive home-making we do in fact save time during the next few months and daily and weekly routines are then suffice to maintain your home in a fashion that all but eliminates Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome. Stains in the carpet are dealt with before they declare themselves permanent fixtures . Drains thoroughly cleaned so they don’t become troublesome in the future. Small appliances  maintained so they don’t conk out at crucial moments and a light shone on all the nooks and crannies in your house, so you can rest assured that dust bunnies aren’t throwing a permanent fuzzy party under the fridge.
It is hard work, that I will grant you, but nothing, oh but absolutely nothing, beats the feeling that every corner of your home is sparkly fresh and ready to be layered with seasonal loveliness…
Let’s get our Scrub on Housekeepers.