Transfer Addiction-Cleaning

My attempt to make cleaning a diversion-of-choice, aka transfer addiction, wasn't sticking. Well, it might be--literally. First mistake, ignoring the fact the floors are labeled no-wax. Second mistake, waxing them anyway late at night in slippers. Third mistake, not realizing sticky wax was on the bottom of one slipper. Here's where the story has a lesson: transfer addictions come at a price---the sticky slipper stopped but my body didn't---took a dive landing on an already-problem knee. A package of frozen peas has helped decide my knee should eventually be okay. I've cleaned and re-cleaned every room possible; it leads to dreaming up the dumbest ideas that need nixing made clear with each sore step.

When I was in my 20s we had a beauty shop and one night I decided to use a paste wax on the tile floors. The next morning the shop looked beautiful and shiny but was a slipping hazard and I had to use wax remover to get it all off before we injured any customers.

As a fellow cleaning freak, you might need to go to a hardware store and buy a wax remover. Trying to get it off with Spic and Span and ammonia in ho****er might not work, but you can try that first.

Glad your knee is OK, but if it stays painful an elastic bandage or a knee brace should help.

I try to make sure I am always wearing tied lace-up shoes for cleaning tasks.

There are a few products that are safe to use on no-wax floors to make them shinier.

Well they say the road to hell is lined with good intentions :-) Sorry you re-injured your knee.

My most hated housework task is mopping floors. I have no problem doing anything else, vacuuming, sweeping, scrubbing toilets, dishes etc...no problem!! But do not try and eat off my floors, chances are they haven't been mopped in a while.

Due to losing a WLS patient to alcohol shortly before my WLS orientation day, staff were particularly emotionally-charged at driving home the warning transfer addictions are a problem in the WLS community and we were at high risk for one. They listed a few: alcohol, smoking, gambling, shopping, sex, exercise and cleaning. If anyone was used to hearing the words "high risk," I was. I sat there SSMO, trying to figure out how to make an addiction work in my favor if I was going to be stuck with one, anyway. I thought, "alcohol and smoking would only add to health problems, gambling and shopping take money I don't have, sex would mean relying on my DH too much, so it was down to exercise and cleaning. Exercise burned calories but so did cleaning with cleaning serving a dual sense of accomplishment." I was told people can't pick an addiction and I was out to prove I could. Waxing floors in the middle of the night felt like an obsession, but probably was like I was told--a strong diversion tactic but not a full-blown addiction. Okay, okay, people can't pick an addiction (although, I have a strong desire to PM White Dove what her favorite cleaning products are but I won't). Everything should be done in moderation and with common sense with or without a wake-up call like my fall. Everything. Out goes the gallon-size jug of wax. Nixed.

My all time favorite product is Clorox bleach. My mother used to have days when she said she could not take us kids anymore and she would spend the day shopping. My father would clean the whole house with Clorox and my mother would complain about the smell when she came home.

Clorox still smells like clean to me. I also like the smell of chlorinated swimming pools.

This week I scrubbed my curbside garbage container with Clorox, a scrub brush and a garden hose. I have a pair of white sweat pants, a white tee shirt, white socks and old white tennis shoes that I wear when working with Clorox.

Otherwise it splashes and I ruin jeans and a colored shirt.

I love, love, love to clean. I have since I was in my 20s. I've always found that no matter how frustrating the rest of my life can be, when I clean I get to see REAL results right away. I feel so satisfied that unlike a diet (which can take weeks to see results) when I clean, I get a reward for a job well done right in that moment.

I am totally impressed that you picked your own transfer addiction. I think it's hilarious and totally brilliant. Hope the knee feels better, soon!

I've been using cleaning as part of my exercise routine in hopes of making it my transfer addiction. I am the only one who cleans anything in our home so there is always something that I need to clean. The only thing I can't seem to convince myself to do is the floors. Maybe it's from having bad knees and back. The thought of cleaning on my knees or hunching over for anything longer than a 30 sec period makes me stop dead in my tracks. Or worse, makes me sit back down.

Anything that will keep you up and moving has to be a good thing, right? Just be careful on that knee.

If God intended us to clean floors on our hands and knees, she would never have created mops.

I think I'd choose the DH addiction! Burns calories too. Easier on the knees too besides *****ally wants to eat off a floor.

Will y'all come visit MY house? I mean, transfer your addiction to a new location: mine.

Seriously, we have in the past few weeks had water damage in our basement, plus a bunch of mice take up residence in our basement storage room/cellar. And so the basement, which is finished really nicely, now looks like a war zone--baseboards off, carpet pulled back, furniture moved intomthemcenter of things, boxes everywhere. The rest of my house is also suffering in the meantime. Ii have been taking everything out of that storeroom, food and craft stuff, and wiping it all down (it has to be wiped from all the mouses droppings). I have caught 4 mice, but seen one baby, which means more babies elsewhere. My puppy keeps scratching at the wood floor on our main level, and someone the other day said, you must have mice living between floors. Dogs can smell that! Yaaaaaargh! Just cannot get ahead!

So when you come, be sure to bring your shop vacs and any cats you know.