Cleanliness is next to Godliness. I heard this drift up the stairs once when we had people putting down floors. The senior flooring person was instructing the apprentice as to how a floor should be prepared prior to laying wood over it. At the time I was not sure if it was issued as a prayer or as an instruction. The apprentice was struggling and the senior flooring person was too.

Today I decided that construction is next to Godlessness. It was on the fourth time over the same vinyl floor with a steam mop after I had cleaned the floor on my hands and knees. After we got rid of the dry wall dust I thought we were home free. What I did not know at the time was how much dust tiling with stone tile makes. As my grandmother would have said, “Murder! It is just murder.”

My tiles were not murdered but they were ground and sifted and grouted and sanded. Gunk from the calk and grout and mastic dropped onto the floor. The tile person was very good about cleaning up but the dust was everywhere. Then, I added dust by working to polish the granite counter tops. Dust.

Left over cardboard and packaging is also a mess. Last weekend my spouse spent most of a day tossing boxes from the upper floor deck to the ground, picking them up to carry them around to the garage, breaking down the cardboard and then hauling it off to the refuse station. Today I brought down 5 large black trash bags and 2 big boxes of trash from the master bedroom/bathroom area.

Cleanliness is next to nothing during construction. I did not aspire to actually get cabinets clean today but I did want to wipe off the dustiest layer of dust. Remove that layer and you get to the next layer down that became mud when you put moisture on the first layer to get it off.

Construction cleanliness simply does not exist. We spend time every single day cleaning up and we never get anything that looks better. What we are rewarded with, and is very important with construction, is no greater accumulation of mess. Everything we haul out on Monday is replaced by its counterparts on Tuesday. Tuesday’s trash makes room for Wednesday’s trash and so it goes.

We talked about getting a conveyer belt to the county “green box area” which is the term for dumpsters where those of us who do not have trash service can take our trash. The conveyer belt had logistical problems given the terrain. We have settled for a combined method of frequent trips with the minivan and less frequent but larger trips with the stuff in our contractor’s utility trailer.

It would be great to have professionals come and really clean the house before we move upstairs. It would probably be $1000 so I just have to keep cleaning. Today I cleaned on my hands and knees. I knew it would take more hand-and-knee time that can be wrung out of our old knees.

One must cling to the belief Cleanliness is next to Godliness when living in the Godless Land of Construction. I pray that the day when we can meet our maker over a bucket of Oxyclean will come soon.