The In-Laws are Coming, The In-Laws Are Coming!

It's true. They'll be here tomorrow, whether I like it or not. Actually, I really do like my in-laws a lot, so I won't complain about that. They're also bringing with them my sister- and brother-in-law, two fabulous people, so good times.

But because they might actually step foot into our apartment, we had do a major minor housecleaning today. Does everyone else have different levels of housecleaning? There's your minor, just pick the crap up off the tables cleaning that you do when your cousin-in-law calls from five minutes away to let you know she's stopping by for tea. There's your target cleaning generally involving a specific problem area (bathtub, kitchen sink, kitchen floor, dusting the living room), but should take no more than half an hour or so that you do when you just can't take the mess anymore. There's your major minor cleaning that actually means you have to set aside a couple of hours - everything visible is getting scrubbed, floors are getting swept AND mopped, and your hands smell like cleaning products for hours afterward (this is what we did today) that you do when your in-laws are coming to visit, if only for a few minutes. Then there's your super thorough spring cleaning that involves actually moving the furniture to sweep that we have never done since we moved into this apartment and will probably not do until we move out of it.

So that brings me to what I am slightly embarrassed about in our apartment, even though we just did a major minor cleaning.

1) Our couch. It's a love seat that the boy took from his mom and dad's house that they had had in their basement. I'd date it as older than either of us and it has rips and tears and (usually, but not today) popcorn under the cushions. There's nothing to do to pretty it up. It's got holes. We're not going to buy a new couch because (we've been saying this for the last three years) chances are pretty good we're going to be moving soon and I don't want to move a new, expensive couch.

2) Our stove top. It's just gross. I can't get it clean, no matter how much Comet, oven cleaner, Magic Eraser I use. It's just...uncleanable.

3) Our shower/bathtub. It's an easy fix. We need to replace the liners on the inside and Comet the hell out of it. But I just never have the time. Since no one is actually going to use our shower this weekend besides me and the boy, I'm letting this slide.

4) The kettle on our stove top. It's greasy and gross, but we use it every day like a hundred times a day, so we never put it away. My mother-in-law has a little knitted hat that she puts on her tea kettle to prevent it from getting all greasy and splattered, but I've never invested in a tea kettle hat. I took a swipe at cleaning our kettle with the Magic Eraser this afternoon and it's better looking, but it's still not normal looking.

5) The garbage can in our kitchen. I'm going to run it through the dishwasher tonight and I really don't care if it melts. It's gross and stained and if it does melt, it will force the boy to go to Target and buy a new one tomorrow. (The boy has to buy it because "new kitchen garbage can" seems to go against the spirit of my current spending moratorium.)

6) Our junk closet. I guess I could clean it out. But then I'd have to go through it. I'd rather stuff just spill out of the closet every time we open the door.

And there you have it. Next time you come over to our apartment, if you could neglect to mention any of those six items, I would surely appreciate it. And please don't tell my mother-in-law that we cleaned for two hours today. I'm pretty sure she's going to be appalled by the splattered state of our tea kettle.