"I do a thorough cleaning only once every two weeks," Zehava,
a mother of seven, said to me. "To be sure, during the week I
tidy up and clean, all the time, but only on the
surface..."
"Only on the surface? What, exactly, do you mean by that?"
I can understand that in the home of my grandparents, a
thorough cleaning is necessary only once every two weeks. But
in a house of seven children? What negligence!
"Well, on a normal day, I only sweep and do a quick mop- up
over the entire house," she begins to elaborate. "Listen,
there are far too many important jobs that need attention to
do more than that. You surely know yourself: there's the
washing, folding and ironing. There's cooking, changing
diapers, being on top of the kids to prevent fighting,
there's mending and, of course, I'm forever straightening up
things and putting them away. You know what it's like in a
house with seven kids..."
Yes, that's exactly it. I know what it's like... And that's
why I can't understand how one can clean only superficially
with seven pair of hands greasy from chicken, or mud-brown
from chocolate, touching the walls and smearing the doors,
kitchen cabinets and chairs.
"Oh, that's something else," says Zehava. "Do you think that
I would leave dirty marks like that around the house? That's
part of my `surface cleaning.' I run after each child with a
wet washcloth whenever I see the dirt. But that job is part
of the daily routine. I have a special cloth for that and
when one cleans up after every smear, it's easy to maintain
superficial cleanliness since it all wipes away in a
jiffy."
"And what about toys and things that roll under the beds?"
"What are you talking about?" Zehava is shocked. "Listen, if
you want a house that's fairly livable, you've got to move
the beds aside every day! If not, you're liable to have
cockroaches, mice and even snakes. I once found the remnant
of some pizza and another time, some soup a child had spilled
there to avoid finishing it. It's an absolute must to move
all the beds and clean underneath every single day!"
"And what about things that fall behind the fridge?"
"The same rule applies. In a house with kids, you've got to
move the fridge every day. You never know when a cherry
tomato or an olive can roll underneath, or an egg cracks and
the goo shpritzes. All I need is one ant, and before you know
it, they'll be a whole colony."
"Wait a minute. That's what you call a superficial cleaning?
That's what you do each day?"
"Of course! Imagine if I had to take the windows out of their
sliding frames, doors off their hinges, light bulbs out of
their sockets to dust, clean and polish every single day!"
"Oh, I see what you mean. And that's the kind of cleaning you
do every two weeks?"
"Sort of, unless things get very dirty in between. Then I
have no choice but to do those chores more often. Listen
here, you know what it's like in a house with seven kids. You
have to be prepared for such eventualities..."
