Major declutter this morning, of the visual sort: I did the one-two task of mopping and scrub-brushing along the dog footprint path across my living room from the dog door to the front room. The porcelain tile is imprinted with a pattern that collects tracked in soil so after going over the spot with the sponge mop I have to scour it with the stiff scrub brush. I waited until we were clear of the cycle of several very rainy weeks; no point in having to repeat it daily or weekly. I didn't do the entire room, just that set of tiles across the room, as a start to holiday cleaning. I will mop the entire floor (have to move furniture first to do the job properly) and the rug under the dining table is like a huge unwashed dog bed. Yeah. I vacuum and it gives off dog dust; I'll use the steam cleaner on it before guests are here for the holidays, but I should really consider getting rid of it. The thing is, the antique table sits on a bunch of little metal castors and rocks when in use if it isn't on the rug. I should probably take off all of those castors to solve that problem, but there are times when they're handy. They're meant for the occasional use, to move for cleaning, not for transporting the table all over the place.

Years ago when we moved to North Texas our moving truck was at the curb and the distance of 100 feet or more seemed a challenge to the casual labor hired to unload (and cherry pick boxes they must have set aside and didn't deliver - note to self - never actually say what is in boxes if it is valuable). I had a toddler on my hands and couldn't adequately supervise but every so often I'd see some piece of antique furniture being pushed up the concrete on it's castors. "Pick it up and carry it, those wheels aren't meant for concrete!" They must have thought I was a real bitch, but they were lazy bums. In the end lots of furniture was damaged a few steps from the front door by those galoots. The moving company had some furniture restorers come fix things and they confirmed my view - those wheels aren't meant for travel, they're on there so the (most likely) woman of the house could shift furniture while sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, etc. That was the design.

rant off/ (I still get pissed about that move, and how unresponsive the company was about it.)