Dirt as Decor

It has been a very busy week, including marathon shopping and cleaning. Yesterday I spent the whole day cleaning down-house, and other than the personal satisfaction of doing it myself, there's not much to show for it. Down-house needs the most thorough cleaning you can imagine, including all the random things like light switches, walls, window sills, etc. The most frustrating part is not cleaning everything, but rather, that it won't come clean. The dirt stains have become a permanent part of the decor now. And even more frustrating is that a few hours after dusting and wiping down all the shelves, they feel dusty and gritty again. Or maybe they never stopped feeling that way, and I just thought they were clean. Deepal assures me that it will get better once we're really living down there. Maybe it will or maybe I'll just get used to it. There's definitely a different standard of clean here. Of course, I'm coming from my mother's house which she keeps clean enough to be called sterile, so jumping from there to here is quite the change. And everything here is much older, so it's lost the advantage of youth. We have recently bought a brand new refrigerator and air conditioners and they are beautifully clean. .. for now. I am re-thinking all my previous decorating ideas. Now I want as little as possible in the way of decoration and furniture because I think it would just frustrate me to see it all get dirty and old looking or it would be exhausting to keep it clean. I appreciate now the job it is for Ma to keep up-house clean and how necessary a maid is.