Domestic agreements

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@Poppylicious and @WorDazza made me think of this. My partner, knowing how vehemently I hate vacuuming, offered to do it instead, and of course I accepted with alacrity! However in my eagerness I neglected to check the small print. Consequently I soon found that his idea of ‘doing the vacuuming’ was different to mine. I thought it meant cleaning up the fluff, dust and cobwebs from the floor, walls and ceiling, including behind and under the furniture, and from any surfaces that might harbour dust and crumbs such as mantelpiece, window-sills, sofa seats etc. And doing this about once a week, at least in the rooms that are used frequently, ideally using a different brush to clean the soft furnishings than the one used to scrub mud off the doormat. In contrast he thought it meant pushing the carpet attachment vigorously backwards and forwards over the small section of carpet in the middle of the room (whether or not this action actually removed the fluff etc.), approximately once a month. This was really brought home to me when I found that a mouse had made a nest and was living quite happily on the seat of our sofa behind a cushion. At that time I was far too busy ever to have time to sit on the sofa, and he couldn’t understand how it could happen because, after all, he had been ‘regularly vacuuming the living room’. Another time I will get the details in writing before agreeing to anything! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2018.