Puppy Play

Soozie preparing for her war on slippers

So this morning now that the house is quiet and empty, I woke to the consequences of a bored puppy who now that the children have returned to their respective educational establishments for the new academic year, has a few boring adult people to entertain her...oh yes.... and a slipper that had been shredded across the carpet in the living room. I never new there were so many layers in a slipper.
​Now as all sensible people know, there is no domestic vacuum cleaner on the planet that would not have had a blocked pipe from an attempt to remove the traces of said slipper through the seemingly quick vacuum method. So I reached for my trusty broom.
I thought I would just do a quick sweep and then a follow up with a vacuum but it appears the broom on its own managed to remove an awful lot of dog hair, dust and slipper. 
I had always scoffed at the inefficiency of using a broom to clean a carpet when I lived in Zimbabwe. But looking at my clean carpet now and the large ball of slipper, hair and dust in the pan, I am not so sure. The advantages of the ancient broom and sweeping method are that there is no need clean a thousand filters, or spend hours with a skewer or tweezers removing unwanted items that have lodged in the bend. They are cheap to replace at a mere 15ish euros as opposed to the hundreds one could spend on a vacuum cleaner (probably manufactured by someone who does not have the same political view as yourself ;)), and they very ecological, if you buy the natural material ones, and environmentally friendly as the only electricity charge is for boiling the kettle to recharge the operator. They also give you a pretty good aerobic workout for free.........well actually for the cost of a clean floor:) Looks like a win win situation all round. 

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Interestingly even if your children have observed the ancient sweeping method of cleaning it may still be required to provide instruction to refine the technique. I discovered with my neice who stayed with us recently that despite having been exposed to many brooms in Zimbabwe, where they are the preferred tool to clean with as they always work in a power cut, (the operator can always just refresh with water ;)) she did need some direction with the issue of coordinating the long handle and avoiding the walls. And also whether the push or pull towards method worked better for her slight stature. She finished the task happy with the result, had done something useful and did not complain once about how heavy the vacuum was to carry around unlike other children (and maybe even Mummys) who have passed through these four walls.

Ok so in order not to make the vacuum cleaner feel totally unloved they are undeniably the number one weapon in the war against the flea. So I guess in my house considering the amount of animals we have there will always be a place for both.
Happy cleaning!
Helenx

Post war on slippers