ANDRE BEGIN

As a homeowner, I pride myself on keeping a neat and tidy place. However, one reality I have faced is that when it comes to floors, cleanliness is merely a temporary state, especially in the kitchen.

Not too long ago, I had a day that illustrated just exactly how that goes.

As per my usual cleaning routine, I ran the robotic vacuum to pick up dust, crumbs and the wisps of almost invisible cat hair resulting from Ivy the Cat’s shedding season. Once that step was done, I then washed and rinsed the floor to bring it back to its original glory. At that point, by all accounts, the floor was clean.

The next morning, as I was emptying the dishwasher, I had a little accident with one of the plates. Somehow, I zigged when I should have zagged and made contact with the post between cabinets, sending a cascade of stoneware dust and pieces of plate over a remarkably large acreage. It is surprising how such a little plate generated so much debris, but it did.

To prevent Ivy from having an accident, I put her on temporary lockdown in one of the bedrooms while I got to work to clean up my mess. After picking up the pieces, a thorough vacuuming and another thorough floor washing, everything was right with the world again. I released Ivy from the bedroom, and we carried on with our day.

Later that day, I returned to the kitchen to find that Miss Ivy had coughed up a hairball on my freshly washed floor. Fortunately, this isn’t something she does often, and obviously, it’s not her fault when her delicate stomach has a hard time digesting her own hair. It happens, and it’s just a fact of life. Naturally, I got to work and brought the floor back to its showroom finish.

When dinner time came around, I was preparing chicken breasts by putting them in a plastic bag and tossing them in my homemade gluten-free coating mix. What I failed to notice was a little hole in the plastic bag, even though it was brand new. As I started vigorously tossing my chicken breasts in the bag like a bouncy castle, a cascade of breadcrumbs and spices flew all over my clean kitchen floor. Unfortunately, I had to put Ivy under lockdown again and clean up the mess.

Even though the broken plate, the hairball and the flying breadcrumbs are not regular occurrences, the reality is there’s always something.

For example, the ice dispenser on our refrigerator/freezer, in an act of generosity, occasionally drops an ice cube when we’re not even in the room.
Or the fact that we live on a gravel road, sometimes leading to an abundance of dust during the times of year when we have the windows open.

I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it’s just the way it is, and I accept that. Perhaps I should be grateful for the amount of exercise I get from the bending, squatting and scrubbing I perform to keep our kitchen floor clean, sanitary, and shiny. And thankfully, we have great tools to help make cleanup a breeze.

I don’t know where I ever got the notion that a clean kitchen floor came with any sense of permanence. Given how it is probably the highest traffic area in the house, getting used several times per day, and is the heart of the home, it makes perfect sense if cleanup needs more attention. That being the case, I just need to manage my expectations that a clean kitchen floor will always be a work-in-progress.

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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André