By Bernadette A. Sahm

There is something so rewarding about cleaning and having a clean house. Yesterday while our precious pooches were being groomed, we decided to do some deep cleaning. It’s been a cold messy winter with freezing temperatures, snow, ice, rain and more that all contributed to the need for a deep clean.

We stripped the beds and did four full loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms and then it was time for the task of shampooing the carpets. Most of our home is covered in hard wood flooring with some rugs. The carpet cleaning required moving the furniture and running the ceiling fans and Duraflame heaters to help with the drying.

It is so gratifying to clean and see the amount of dirt and sand that had accumulated in our home. Living so close to the beach makes sandy floors a fact of life. Seeing that black water that was the result of deep cleaning was so rewarding and yet a bit shocking. Look at what we have been living with, I thought!

One of my favorite things is having a clean and tidy well-made bed, not only do I appreciate seeing it during the day, but, getting into a bed with fresh clean sheets at the end of the day is one of the best feelings. It makes all the efforts so worth doing. Clean crisp cotton sheets are just one of life’ simple pleasures.

After spending several hours cleaning, my husband and I decided to visit a shop that houses several local artists original artwork where we stumbled upon a perfect piece to bring home. It now hangs proudly in our living area. We also visited a specialty store and purchased some pink sea salt, high quality maple syrup, some homemade peanut brittle and coffee from one of our favorite places in New Orleans, Cafe Du Monde. These purchases represented our rewards for all the work we did earlier in the day cleaning our home.

A clean house makes me feel good and in taking care of our environment I feel both proud of what we accomplished together with my husband and healthier for living in a cleaner, organized and tidy home. Win-win!