Saturday I spent the afternoon doing various cleaning tasks. The ones that I normally ignore. I got out the step ladder to change a light bulb in the kitchen ceiling.

Since I had the ladder out, I took it outside to change the bulbs that were burned out on out porch fixtures (each of the three had one burned out bulb) and since I was changing those, I took off the globes, cleaned out all the dead bugs and brought the globes in to be washed. I should do that more than once a year, because they sure look nice when they are all spiffied up and free of dead bug bodies. I was positive that I was going to break the glass on one of those suckers, but I didn't. Which is good.

Bringing the step ladder back inside, I looked at the valances on my dining room windows which were covered in dust and at the curtains that the dog has soiled by repeatedly staring out the window and putting his muddy paws and chin on the window sill. I got the bright idea to wash everything. The valances are machine washable. The curtains I made a couple of years ago, and I kind of assumed they were washable (in fact, I think I washed the fabric before I made the curtains). You can kind of see where this is going, I suppose, but not only did I shrink the curtains (in cold water on a gentle cycle) but I also, who knows why washed the valances (burgundy) with the cream colored curtains -- so now they are both too short and pink! That's bad.

I did clean the baseboards in the dining room. That's good. I let The Middle Girl help and she sprayed the walls and the buffet with cleaning solution. Not so good.

Other than the curtains, which will have to be replaced, all is tidier and more in order. A little fresher and a lot more pleasant. The good outweighs the bad, although I may continue to bang my head into a few more walls while saying "stupid idiot" to myself over the curtains.