Edel Coffey: It’s hard not to get swept up in spring clean fever when you’re housebound 

Edel Coffey: After the Christmas tree came down, a cold eye was cast over the whole home that involved a full stock-take followed by a full clear-out. Picture: Ray Ryan

This Christmas, our family, our festivities, our new year celebrations, and the first few weeks of January were wiped out by various ailments and lurgies and illnesses that seemed to transfer from one to the next with the seamlessness of a baton in a world-champion relay race. I know I’m not alone in this. It seems like half the country had the same experience. The last time I went to the chemist (which, for the record, was yesterday), the pharmacist actually laughed to see me again.

The upshot of all this is I was housebound. And the upshot of being housebound is you get very familiar with every little job that needs to be done in your home and it’s hard not to get swept up in new year spring clean fever when you’re spending every living minute in your house. But spring cleaning when you live with children is different to spring cleaning when you live alone. Part of the cycle of sharing a home with children is keeping on top of their belongings.