cleaning up the party mess

Sue, “...the party was great.  It’s been a long time coming.  I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”

“I am glad you had a good time.”

As my best friend Amy closed the door behind her, I looked up at my husband Andy with a triumphant smile.  The party had been the first celebration since the pandemic had reared its ugly head.  The house had been filled with over 25 people (the most allowed for those who had been vaccinated) and my guest list included my elderly parents, my teen children and my colleagues from work.

Reality came crashing down on me as I closed the door and I shuttered when I saw the mess that was left behind...ugh, it looked as though I was invaded by an army.

“Ok,  Andy, time to clean up this mess”.

There was a blue plastic cup laying on it’s side right by the entrance door.  I could smell the remnants of Sam Adams beer in the cup.   I was glad I had chosen plastic cups instead of my good glasses and laughed to myself as I remember a party that I had planned when i was a teenager and my parents were away for the weekend.  Those cups were filled with a spiked fruit punch and rum.

Fortunately the leftover liquid had not found its way to the parquet floor.  

Okay, not too bad, I thought as I walked into the dining room, waiting for Andy to come back with a large brown garbage bag and the vacuum cleaner.

It was than, that I realized the the couch had been accosted by the party goers -- the beautiful flowered pillows that had been arranged in a neat pattern were now strewed on the floor in a twisted cacophony of colors and potato chip crumbs.

What member of my family or friend could have created such a mess and which of them would have even left this trail of destruction.  (everyone knew about my OCD and need for cleanliness and order)  Perhaps they were just so excited at being at a party for the first time in over a year.

Then to my horror, I noticed the large stain that was left by the dish of salsa still on the coffee table.  Oh...that stain will never come out...my good couch is ruined.  Well, maybe I’ll just go out and buy a pretty slipcover.  After all, I can’t afford a new couch.

Andy and I then began to move around the living room in a silence as we continued to return the room to its earlier look.

The next room to tackle was the den (my kids often referred to this room as “the game room”) since that is where all the electronics and game gear was placed.  I was not too concerned with this room, because the furniture in this room was old.  But still, the room looked out of place to me.

The dining room did not offer any surprises, so I thought, because I had originally set up this room myself.  I hated the thought of having to wash the dishes after the party so I planned ahead and bought plenty of aluminum trays and sternos for the hot dishes.  All the service utensils were plastic and disposable.  I had placed a pitcher of ice on the table, and the plastic cups right next to the ice for easy access to the sodas and other refreshments on a separate table.

But when I went into the dining room to clean up, there were food droppings around the food trays and on the floor.  The service utensils were crusted over with dried up sauce, mashed potatoes and rice on the tablecloth and cake crumbs from the desserts.

There was also a small puddle of clear liquid from the pitcher that held the ice water.  The puddle of water had seeped through the tablecloth and it was then that I noticed the permanent water stain.  It took about an hour to clean up this room.

As the hours wore on, my spirits continued to dampen and next I entered the bathroom.

“Oh my god, I heard my voice beckoning Andy to explore our beautiful bathroom.  I hadn’t wanted anyone to use my bathroom towels (I still question safety in the bathroom -- do people thoroughly wash their hands after using the bathroom).  I had placed a container of jasmine flavored hand sanitizer on the sink and noticed that the remaining amount of sanitizer hadn’t looked as there was no obvious level of use before the party.

This left me with the need to reclean the bathroom; from scrubbing the toilet to cleaning the faucets in the sink with two applications of bathroom cleanser.

“What kind of people would leave my bathroom in such a poor state?”  (I keep on asking Andy the same question, but he does not have an answer and follows me into the next room).

Finally we enter our own bedroom (our personal domain) expecting it to be the same way we had left it.  After all, our bedroom was not usually a place in the house for anyone to invade.  But as I looked at our king sized bed, I saw the dent of another human body in the middle of the bed.  Someone had definitely been in this room.  Maybe they had sat on the bed to give advice, or were simply tired and just needed to lay down for a few minutes.

I also noticed that my unannounced visitor was a smoker.  They had left a red plastic cup on the edge of the night table with dried ashes left behind.  I wonder where they put the burned out cigarette because there were no cigarette burns anywhere in the room...just the ashes and the lingering smell of smoke left behind.  That question was later answered when I noticed a stubbed out cigarette butt in the bushes below my bedroom window.

I sprayed the room with lemon air freshener and smoothed out the bed before turning the lights off in the room.  

After every room was inspected and cleaned to the best of my ability, I turned to Andy and said “if I ever suggest throwing a party from now on, just remind me about today’s party!