Super Clean – a short story for English reading and speaking

I sat down with a cup of tea and turned the TV on.

It was a Tuesday night, and all I wanted to do was relax and watch mindless rubbish on the box.

A show appeared on the screen. Perfect suntanned bodies. Impossibly beautiful girls arguing with ultra-handsome boys in a villa on a perfect island.

One of those awful reality shows. But perfect for the mood I was in right now.

I reclined lower in the armchair to watch the show. But I couldn’t help but notice that the TV screen had a fine layer of dust on it.

I decided to ignore it. But as much as I tried not to think about it, the dust stared back at me, refusing to let me relax.

All I had to do was find a rag and clean the screen. Then I could just slide down into the armchair and forget everything.

I went to the kitchen and found an old cloth that I used for cleaning pretty much everything. Came back to the living room and gave the TV screen a good wipe.

The beautiful people on the reality show looked much cleaner now. They practically shone.

I noticed the edges of the screen also had a little dust on them, so I ran the cloth over there too.

Now, the TV didn’t have one speck of dust on it.

Good job. I allowed a small sense of achievement to run through my mind. A small hit of dopamine that did a little celebration dance inside my head.

I was just about to dump the cloth back in the kitchen when I noticed the stand the TV was on.

I had had this stand for years. I know I didn’t buy it. Someone gave it to me. It looked like one of those generic pieces of furniture you can find in department stores or those big box furniture outlets.

But the amount of dust lying on the top of it…

I could be breathing that in. All those tiny fragments of dead skin, plant life, food, paper, deceased insects…

I had to get rid of it.

I rushed back into the kitchen to rinse the cloth in the sink. Get some fresh water in it.

But then I remembered the bucket that I had somewhere…

I scurried around the kitchen, but I couldn’t find it.

Then I remembered where it was!

The old toilet in the garden. This was put up years ago when the house was first built.

Now, I just used it to store old stuff.

I ran out to the garden and opened the door of the outside toilet. There inside was the bucket.

Back in the kitchen, I filled it with hot water. I added some washing-up liquid too.

Then I got to work cleaning the TV stand.

I was overcome with this feeling of accomplishment as I washed off all the debris from the top of the stand.

Just as I was leaning back, smiling to myself with a small sense of pride, I saw that the shelves of the stand needed cleaning, too.

There was a ton of stuff just crammed into the shelves. Times when I had come home and had an item that I wanted to tidy away.

But in my haste, I just shoved it with all the other things on the small shelves under the TV stand.

I pulled it all out. And there was a lot of it.

Advertising, promotion leaflets, and flyers introducing gyms and tanning centres.

I turned my head to the dusty, grimy shelves, then back to the pile of items on the floor next to me.

Clean the shelves or organise all this old stuff?

I had to make a decision…

The noise from the reality show was starting to interfere with my thinking, so I picked up the remote and turned it off.

That was better. Now I could think properly.

I picked up the rag, rinsed it out in the hot, soapy water and got to work on the shelves.

There were a couple of tough spots to clean, but I managed to get it all off.

Now they were pristine…

I sat back on the carpet and stared at the TV and the second-hand shelving unit that it stood upon.

All clean. Super clean.

A small rush of accomplishment ran through my mind. It felt good to do this.

Now, I could sit down and enjoy the rest of the evening…

I picked up the cup of tea and took a sip. It was cold now.

No problem, I’ll make another one.

And as I walked to the kitchen, I noticed a small stain on the rim of the cup. Old tea stains. Something that I just hadn’t bothered to clean off properly when I did the washing up.

In the kitchen, I threw the old tea down the drain. Then I picked up the wire wool scrubber and scratched at the stain on the cup.

It came off, but then a thought came into my head that all the other cups could have stains. And maybe some of the other crockery.

I opened the cupboard and pulled out all the cups, bowls, plates and other pieces of china.

I inspected everything. Things could be cleaner for sure.

I opened the hot water tap and filled the sink with hot, soapy water.

As it was filling up, I noticed that the inside of the cupboard was filthy…

My eyes traversed down to the floor, and I was disgusted by how grimy it was.

The table, the walls… And the windows had not been cleaned in weeks.

I would have to clean everything.

There was no way I could stop. No way I could rest until the kitchen was totally spotless.

Then I could do the bathroom. The bedroom. All the living room.

This would be an all-night job. I might not feel that great tomorrow at work, but there was no way I could sleep in a house this filthy.

I pulled my sleeves up, took a breath, and got to work.