The Cursory Wipe

Ok, so hands up and admit it – who else lives with: The Cursory Wipe? Come on, it can’t just be me…is it? Sitting on the loo, you glance around the bathroom and spot some grime on the tiles in front of you. Pee done and you give the tiles a cursory wipe. Kids off to school in the morning, packed lunches made, you give the kitchen a cursory wipe. Into the conservatory to water the dead cyclamen that was reduced to 89p because it was dead, but you thought you could save it anyway and you spot the dust on the top of the sofa – you give it, yes, you guessed it – the cursory wipe. This makes my cleaning skills extremely superficial. Half term is now over, a time when I could have made more of an effort to clean, but the kitchen cupboards finished me off early on in the week and now it is Wednesday and we’re well into another term of cursory wiping. 

Now I wouldn’t accept this half hearted attempt at cleaning when daughters do their chores. I run my finger across surfaces and peer into the showers as if I am the Queen Bee of cleaning, but somehow I myself manage to get away with the CW. 

I blame my lack of attention to detail on my early forays into cleaning with number 1 friend, when we momentarily worked for a cleaning agency to supplement student grants. On a 3 hour job, we had an agreement with each other, that we would go in and do an hour’s cleaning and on the dot of 60 minutes the kettle would go on and we’d raid the client’s cupboard for food. This worked like a dream and so set my standards at a fairly low level for future life. 

The bottom line is, that the CW actually works. If the house is fairly tidy, if the weekend papers have been folded, if the shoes have been shoved in cubbyholes and if there are a couple of vases of fresh flowers sitting about, then you get away with it. Add a candle and/or a room diffuser into the mix and you are laughing. 

So go on, be honest. Put your hands up and say, without fear of repercussions: I admit to being a slave to the cursory wipe.