Cleaning

Last night I cleaned my kitchen- like, deep cleaning, the kind where you move the microwave cart and get the dust bunnies underneath- and finally took down the Christmas tree and ornaments. Do any of you out there have Great Ideas for cleaning a kitchen floor, by the way? I have tried:

1) A sponge mop and Mop-'n-Glo, my mom's stategy when I was growing up;
2) "looking for dirty spots" and going after them with a paper towel and spray bottle of Forumla 409 or All-Purpsoe-Cleaner-With Bleach
3) a bucket, soapy water (used dish detergent last night), a rag (old dish towel), and a bristle brush

None of these methods seem particularly satisfying to me, in terms of dirt removal, meaning, I can still see bits of ground in dirt when I'm done. In the answer just MORE, HARDER SCRUBBING? Because if it is, I think I'm beginning to question the Higher Purpose of cleaner floors. The thing that helps (or makes it worse, depending how you look at it) is that our kitchen floor was brand new when we moved in- which means that, it still doesn't look bad (especially right after I give my best effort to clean it), but, I feel Obligated to "keep it looking new." I guess that's not realistic. We've lived on it for 3 1/2 years, and surely every floor can be expected to start showing some wear and tear? But then I think, perhaps if I cleaned my floor EVERY WEEK like you're supposed to (flylady probably says Every Day, right?) there wouldn't be ground in dirt and it would look new anyway...? And I don't think the WALLS are clean either. They have little bits of things that splash on them around the stove and discolor them...

Nate thinks I'm OCD and I think maybe I am too. Right now if you looked at my kitchen floor (standing up, not on your hands and knees) you would tell me it looks Clean. So maybe I should just be happy with that.

Our bathroom floor is a whole 'nother story. I think it might date back to the 60's. Little pink and white mosaic tiles, with blackened grout inbetween. In contrast to the kitchen floor, it doesn't motivate one because it looks like there is No Hope. So I usually just use a few paper towels and some cleaner with bleach and wipe it down. The main difference before-and-after is that after, there is not *as much* hair/dust/whatever covering it.

Cleaning is kind of depressing. That's why I try to stick to math as much as possible.

To end on a happy note:

Finslippy, on parenting a three-year-old:
"It’s like you’re raising an intelligent, perceptive, mildly psychotic Armenian."