"She vacuums around furniture..."

I'm not a perfectionist when it comes to housework... Rather, I have a comfort level... On a scale of 1 to 10, my tidiness comfort level probably ranges between a 5 and an 8... If our place is too tidy, it feels a little too sterile to me. It definitely doesn't feel like home. (My husband, on the other hand, would like it to be a constant 9 or 10!)

I'm always on the look-out for housekeeping shortcuts. So a few years ago, my ears perked up when a friend commented:"My mother has her own style of doing housework. She vacuums around furniture - she would never think of moving it to vacuum under it... It drives me crazy!"

Vacuums around furniture?! (An interesting concept!) As one who had been taught to lift and move all furniture when vacuuming, this sounded like a dream come true! No longer would vacuuming be a chore! In fact, my vacuuming time would be cut by 50-75%!

(Terry will be relieved to know I didn't adopt the practice.... yet!)

But recently I made a startling discovery...!

We had to buy a new vacuum cleaner. One of the nifty features of this newer model is a red and green light system to tell you when a carpet is clean.














On the beater bar, if dust or dirt are being sucked up, a little light turns red, indicating that the job isn't done yet!














But if no dirt is going into the vacuum, the sensor turns the light green... a sign to move on.

So here is my discovery...! When I vacuum around the sofa, the light initially is red, but when I move the beater bar under the sofa, the light invariably stays green - indicating that there is no dust or dirt to pick up there!

Wow! After all these years of unnecessarily-thorough vacuuming, I now realize that our friend's mother was on to something: on a carpet, at least, dust and dirt build up where we walk - not under furniture!

Mmmmm... This calls for a re-evaluation of my housework habits!

(I can already hear Terry groan!)