I've been trying lately to catch up on my housecleaning, because over the past few months I've really let things go. I'm still not exactly sure why I was in such a funk; I know I wasn't feeling well for some of it, but I'm still fighting the sinus stuff and I feel more motivated (I love my neti pot, by the way!).

cairech says there have been some recent planetary movements that might be part of it, and I'm willing to believe that, because it was like I woke up one morning and I wanted to get things back in order. I've not been fanatical about it - the only time I fanatically clean is when I'm angry or upset - but I've been accomplishing small victories every day. Oddly, I think the dreadlocking of my hair may have been either the catalyst or a signifier of the skies clearing a bit for me, something else cairech mentioned.

I seem to clean best in the morning when I get up, after I take care of the animals. Today I cleaned up the kitchen a bit, and then tackled my bathroom. I find that I still need to take breaks though, because my back starts to hurt when I bend over to clean stuff - obviously, I'm on such a break right now! I cannot remember the last time I cleaned my bathroom well, and it was really disgusting when I got down on the floor to clean under the toilet basin. It's amazing that you don't see all that dust and hair from above! Anyway, that's all better.

I took a tip from earthwomyn06 and decided to start using the huge pile of old washcloths instead of so much paper toweling. So I moved a stack of them into the kitchen and I used one for my cleaning today. It actually works much better!

I figure I will have less of a hair problem in the bathroom since I'm not brushing my hair anymore, which I really am looking forward to, because I'd have to wipe down the counters and sweep the floor every week or so to keep up with it. I'm looking forward to that! However, I will have more work to do in the shower. I prefer baths to showers, and have for as long as I can remember. So I don't have to clean the walls of my shower all that much. But now, I'm finding that the best way to get the water from my infant-dreads is to whip my head up and down like I'm at a Metallica concert. This throws the water onto the walls, and it works great, but it means I need to keep up with cleaning the walls and ceilings now. Maybe I could put my hair in a towel, run outside and headbang in the yard! At least when it's warm...

Dreadlock update: They are staying together much better, and I've been using both a tiny crochet hook and a felting needle ( from twisted_tulip and anarwad, respectively!)to help coalesce the more unruly ones that I can get to. A couple of the larger ones are actually starting to feel like dreads, they are holding their shape and doing their own thing. This is very fast progress, from what I can tell, so I'm stoked about that.