Spring Cleaning

It's the middle of Spring and I am having a cleaning fit. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, baseboards beware. Ye shall be wiped clean.

"Unbelievable."

"What is?"

"Check this out," I say, and I pull the rug back a few feet. There, lying innocent but in wait, are at least a baker's dozen pine needles.

My husband chuckles.

"How do we miss so many every year?"

"I think they actually multiply."

Every year on New Year's Day, my family and I take down our Christmas tree. We carefully tuck away all of the ornaments, multi-colored balls, strings of lights, and wreaths. We take the tree out, and then diligently vacuum every square inch of floor before putting the furniture back in its non-holiday place. And every year, this.

"Aaargh," I say, and I attack the offending pine needles with the vacuum cleaner. "Why don't we get an artificial tree this year?"

"Yeah…no," my husband says.

"I'm serious. No more pine needle stowaways." I vacuum violently farther under the rug, peek beneath it once more for good measure, and then lay it back down.

David laughs again and turns back to the Newsweek he was reading.

It's only in the spring that I am totally serious about buying an artificial tree, one with the lights already in place and realistic needles. My husband argues that we will miss the pine smell, and I argue back that they make air fresheners for that. But when the day after Thanksgiving rolls around again, I am eyeing the trees in the Christmas tree lots and measuring the height of the ceiling once again.

Spring cleaning, here I come.