Oh Lord, what’s happened to me! Life in the time of Covid has turned me into a compulsive cleaner.
Since the ‘shelter in place’ edict came through, there’s been no problem filling time. Lots of work for clients that was always, of course, part of my daily routine and accomplished from my home office; exercise outside every day, my favorite TV shows at night on a variety of broadcast, cable and other networks. Easy peasy.
Washing my hands about 300 times a day – absolutely! And, oh yes, the grazing. Food has always been an important part of my day and especially now for comfort and distraction during this time of Covid and, even though, meals are now served by me on the kitchen table as opposed to sitting at a restaurant being served, that comfort food offers time for pause. It hasn’t been all that difficult to fill up time in the day.
As I search for ‘time fillers’ or a break from the work at hand, I even watched a Catholic Mass on Easter Sunday. I’m a retired Catholic, but with nine years of Catholic education and most Sacraments in my back pocket, the duties required by the church never go away. So, there I was in front of my computer watching a compelling service. Yes, it was actually compelling. I always loved the homilies – or the ‘sermons’ as they were called back in my day. I loved the stories. I don’t remember that Catholics ever read the Bible, but rather interpreted the passages. I do believe that’s how it worked. Those stories were to me, as a child in Catholic school, like fairy tales, folklore. I loved them. Couldn’t really identify with some of the characters, for example Mary Magdalene. Who was she anyway? A groupy?
I digress … back to my compulsive cleaning. Here’s how the process went.
Since I’m paying my wonderful housekeeper to stay at home, it’s now up to me to clean. YIKES! First, I had to locate all the cleaning fluids. It was like a scavenger hunt. I looked in every likely cupboard and closet. Found all the necessary items right where they should have been, under every sink in various forms, conditions and brands. ‘The Hunt’ continued to line up all the gadgets, more fluids and machines to accomplish cleaning. My day is already full, do I really have time for this? Oh, yes, it was Saturday. The lines are blurred between the days of the week so I’ve not noticed the difference between a day when there’s work and a day when work is not so pressing.
So, the cleaning began. First, the floors, which I usually keep up anyway, then the bathroom. To really be thorough – here’s where the compulsion took hold – I needed to go deep and high to clean light fixtures, the blinds, the grout and god knows what else. I couldn’t find any appropriate rags – what does my wonderful housekeeper Yolanda use? Should I rip up some old T-shirts? Then I realized that fluffy thing on the end of the stick was the dusting device. OK. Now, dust. I can do this. I have all the implements needed to clean.
After hours of toiling with this compulsion to get into every nook and cranny, lamp shade, pull books off shelves and underneath just about everything, I was exhausted. And, get this: it was not that much fun. There’s some personality disorder here. Maybe it doesn’t have a label.
Maybe I’ll find another compulsion or something else to obsess about …