Loose Ends
Real men don't dust
Susan Nienow

It's not that I am behind, but I am still looking for that hour we lost a few weeks ago. My other half offered to help the other day when we were having company and picked dusting over vacuuming. I know better than that. I traded with him. He does better with bigger machines and bigger targets.

I don't think it is his vision as much as his genetic makeup. He doesn't really see dust. If I point it out, he acknowledges that there is dust, takes a swipe or two at it and calls it clean. Never mind that the dust is piled up in the corner or that he missed a spot with the duster.

Now, I admit I am a perfectionist. It is painful for me to give the house a "once over" cleaning. I am perfectly happy sitting in a corner for half the day cleaning the baseboards with sudsy water and a paintbrush.

But when I leave the corner, it's clean. The problem with that method is that it takes four months to clean the house. And when my other half "cleans," he vacuums the middle of the room, moves the dust around, leaves the bathroom for me (an agreement we made 30 years ago that still works today) and is done in two hours.

The garage is a different story. I can step over anything out there, and it doesn't bother me. know that while I am sweeping the cobwebs out of one corner, the spider has scampered back to the one I just cleaned to lay eggs for another whole generation of cobweb condos. And just as I finish sweeping all the leaves into the trash, the wind picks up and blows in a new tree's worth.

My other half can spend the day cleaning the garage and not touch the windows or the curtains that contain enough bug carcasses to keep a flock of birds fed for a month. My thought is that if I don't clean any of the garage then the bugs aren't as noticeable.

While he cleans the garage, I can clean out one small flowerbed - with tweezers. That means no weeds, no dried plant parts, no leaves or small stones. It is perfect when am done. And my other half is just a wee bit exasperated because I still have several more beds to clean out.

When he cleans the front porch, he sweeps everything into the mulch and flowerbed and puts the broom away. I think he should get the webs off the ceiling (I don't do that - the spiders drop on me and give me nightmares), put all of the leaves and pine tags in the trash and pull the weeds in the walk.

And my car? I take it to the carwash where they clean the inside, too. My other half gives the outside a "once over" and is finished. That's another thing we don't clean together.