Cleaning house, Petunia Dursley Style

"The kitchen door had opened, and there stood Harry's aunt, wearing rubber gloves and a housecoat over her nightdress, clearly halfway through her usual pre-bedtime wipe-down of all the kitchen surfaces."  (from The Half-Blood Prince, p. 46)

I used to think that Petunia was obsessive and overboard with cleaning.  I used to think that a daily wipe-down ritual was crazy and time spent on something far too unpleasant.  That's what I used to think...

Until I got home from my three-week vacation to find ants in my kitchen.

Gross.

Spiff thinks that I over-react to the teeny, tiny little insects I found marching over my kitchen floor.  However, I remember all too well the ant infestation in a house I shared with roommates, that centered around the kitchen sink.  I remember the sight of thousands of little insects constantly framing the sink.  I remember thinking that the kitchen sink was moving, if I caught a glance of it out of the corner of my eye.  I also remember feeling that if I consumed anything that came from the kitchen, the food must also be crawling with little marching creatures.  It still makes my skin crawl and my stomach turn to think of it.

This is why I no longer think that Petunia Dursley is crazy, at least about kitchen cleanliness.  I have taken to wiping down all kitchen surfaces and mopping the floor with bleach water every night.  I also spray any little beast I find swarming over dropped pieces of ramen noodles with Lysol, and then I mop, mop, mop my cares away.

So, if you drop by my house around 8:00 in the evening, you might find me donning my housecoat and my rubber gloves, with Lysol in one hand and a bucket of bleach in the other.  We're aiming for an ant-free kitchen here!