Adventures in House Cleaning

Our entire house is tiled, and the only rug we have is a small area rug in the living room. I don't have a vacuum, so I just sweep it regularly and occasionally take the shop vac to it to get it good and clean. Yesterday I realized that it was past time to give the rug a deep cleaning, so I got out the shop vac and tore into it.

Now if you've ever tried to vacuum a rug with a shop vac, you'll know that it takes quite a bit of time and effort to get down on your hands and knees and use a hose attachment and go over the whole rug in six-inch pieces at a time. I was diligently working away at it and concentrating on not missing any parts of the rug.

I was so engrossed, in fact, that I hadn't even looked up once. When I finished the whole rug I got up to inspect my handiwork. I turned around and saw that the entire other side of the room was covered in dust and dirt.

Evidently, while I was focused intently on cleaning the rug, the vacuum filled up and started blowing the dirt out the back of the vacuum. 

I was frustrated, to say the least, that I now had to clean everything on that side of the room, wipe down the walls, dust and clean all the furniture, and sweep and mop the floor (several times.) It turned into much more than I had anticipated.

At the time, it was NOT amusing, but as I think back on it, I wish there was a camera to capture me cleaning away meticulously while dust was pouring out of the vacuum behind me. I can just picture it now!

I'm sure there are plenty of object lessons that could be drawn from this experience. Maybe something about focusing on one part of your life, while neglecting the rest. Or perhaps something about trying to do things in your own power, and making a bigger mess that you started with. This is probably not the last time I will tell this story.