Mr. Clean

My little Andy Man was born with the "clean gene". Obviously from the Greenfield side of the family, as his Daddy is also one that enjoys cleanliness of his surroundings. Some people have called him a 'neat freak' (not me of course) . I find it rather nice to have a husband that enjoys to give the kitchen counters a through once over, and knows how to use the vacuum and the washer and dryer. I do have to admit that it has probably been the biggest hurdle in blending our family. After all any mother of several children will tell you that keeping the house clean at all times is like shoveling the sidewalk in a snow storm. It's pretty much impossible to have a completely tidy house. When you have a husband that craves cleanliness and order and you have 4 children, a toddler and 2 large, smelly, shedding dogs in the house ~ someone is not going to achieve their goal. He's gotten better over time accepting that sometimes it's okay that the floor is littered with 1,000 rubber duckies (thanks Grandma Bauer) or that the kitchen table is the official vacation spot for Barbie and all her friends ~ and the 12,000 accessories that they travel with. It's also okay to shower with Naked mermaids and rubber sea animals watching you. He's become quite a good sport living with us and all our craziness and his reward is his mini-me that's a veritable cleaning tornado. His favorite toy is the spray bottle that I got at the dollar store. I fill it with water and turn him lose with a tiny washcloth. He cleans everything... the table, chairs, appliances, windows, dogs, toys, siblings... He loves to use the Swiffer, so I've adapted it to suit his height challenge I just took two of the handle pieces out and now it's just his height. Last winter I bought a small vacuum at Walmart that is really like a dustbuster with an extend-able handle and a foot attachment. since the handle slides into itself it becomes just his height and as soon as he started to walk last winter, he began his vacuuming hobby! Last week he called me into the kitchen with much distress in his voice. I ran in to see why he was so upset about to discover he spotted a piece of dogfood trapped betweent he fridge and the wall and insisted that I remove it at once. He's become quite the little dictator of housework! My parents have purchased his a cleaning cart for Christmas. Not sure we should bother getting him anything else... it's his dream come true! :) HAPPY CLEANING ANDYMAN