What Now?

       Someone I had formerly thought of as a friend, e-mailed me recently to ask where I was going next on my cleaning plan. She pointed out that I had spent most of the month dealing with the six issues Martha said should be done daily. Wasn't it time to move on to Martha's much longer list of 37 weekly cleaning tasks? 

       This list includes tasks like "vacuum upholstery and floor" in living room, "empty trash bin" in home office, "wipe mirrors" in bathrooms, and so on. I am pleased to report that I already performed pretty much all of the 37 tasks even before I started "going Martha". And ones that I wasn't doing -- wiping the inside of the oven and microwave, for example -- I am doing now. 

       Perhaps that is part of the reason Martha's book appealed to me. It isn't called a "Housecleaning Handbook" or even a "Homemaking Handbook". Rather it appeared to me to be a handbook for "keeping" a home a home. For me, the daily tasks were what was keeping my otherwise clean home from feeling that way.

       That doesn't mean there isn't more to learn from Martha's 744-page tome. Indeed, the book is full of advice on matters ranging from how to clean a computer mouse, to how to fold a sweater (for those of us who haven't yet worked at The Gap), to how to fix the float ball in a toilet.  So for the remainder of the month, I am going to share some of these additional tidbits of advice offered by Martha and her staff. 

Tomorrow: Loading the Dishwasher -- The Guy Way vs. The Martha Way.