Welcome to English as a second language podcast, number 23.
Hello and welcome to English as a second language podcast, number 23.
My name is Dr. Jeff McQuillan, with the center for educational development.
We are coming to you from Los Angeles, California.
If this is your first time listening, please go to our website at “www.eslpod.com” to find out more information about this podcast.
Today’s topic is going to be Spring cleaning: Cleaning up the house, making sure everything is clean.
We’re gonna talk about the vocabulary as always after we listened to our discussion.
Let’s get started.
Spring cleaning is supposed to take place before summer, not after it. But as usual, I procrastinated and now I have to finally get rid of all the junk I’ve accumulated over the year. But now, there are no if’s, and’s or but’s about it-the cleaning must be done!
I start in my bedroom. I have a king bed with a sheet on the mattress and a top sheet with pillow cases on the pillows. Atop all that, I have a down comforter. Well, they all need to be washed. So, into the machine they go. Next, I start in on the closet. What a mess! I’ve got boxes and bins full of stuff that need sorting. Finally, I have to vacuum the carpet and dust. Whew! Quite a job! Good thing I don’t have any drapes, just shades on the windows.
But I’m not done yet. It’s time to move on to the kitchen. I have a combination stove and oven, both of which I need to clean. I start with the fridge, though which needs the most work. I take out the shelves and rinse them all off. Then, I dump anything which has a passed its expiration date. Then, its back to the stove, which I need to scrub clean of the grease and stains and the same for the oven. Finally, I wash all the dirty dishes and put them in a dish rack next to the sink.
Spring cleaning is always a mixed bag for me. It’s a lot of work, but I also find things I’ve been missing for the past year! Maybe next time, I’ll manage to do my spring cleaning in the spring.

Now let’s talk some of the vocabulary I used.
The topic of today’s podcast is “Spring cleaning.”
Spring of course is one of the four seasons: fall, spring, winter and summer.
In the united states, we usually talk about spring cleaning. Meaning cleaning up your house after the winter to get ready for the summer.
I of course am a bit lazy and so, I procrastinated in doing my spring cleaning.
To procrastinate -thats a long word- spelled p r o c r a s t i n a t e d, procrastinate is the verb (I said I procrastinated) meaning, I waited for a very long time.
Some people when they have to do their taxes -tax forms for the government-, they wait until the very last day.
That’s called “procrastinating”, waiting until the very last minute.
“I procrastinated” I said and now I finally have to get rid of all the junk I have.
“To get rid of” means to throw away and we have several expressions today about throwing away: putting in the trash, things that we do not want.
“Junk” of course is a common term. Meaning, anything that you do not want.
Trash and junk are basically the same idea.
I used a common expression “There are no if’s and’s or but’s about it.”
This expression means that there is no way to avoid the situation or that something you are about to say is absolutely true.
For example, There are no if’s and’s and but’s about it. I must do my homework today.” meaning, I can’t avoid doing my homework.
Another expression I used, several expressions dealing with the bedroom and things you find in a bedroom.
First of all, we have a mattress and a mattress is what you lie on in the bed.
A bed is a mattress on top of a frame (what we call the bed frame.)
So, the mattress is what you actually lie down on.
The sheet goes over the mattress. The sheet is a piece of cotton or linen that you stretch over the mattress, so that you don’t get the mattress dirty.
A top sheet is a second sheet that goes on top of the mattress sheet in between your blanket and you.
A blanket of course is a thick piece of material we put over us to keep us warm.
A special kind of blanket is called “a comforter.”
A comforter is a big blanket, a very big blanket.
A down comforter is a comforter made out of feathers.
When we say, “We have a down comforter”, we mean, it’s a comforter made out of some sort of birds’ feathers.
you can also have a down jacket. These are very warm for those who live in very cold places.
Also, in the bedroom on top of the bed is the pillow.
The pillow is what we put our head on and the piece of linen that we put over the pillow to keep it from getting dirty is called “The pillow case.”
I said, “After I finished the bedroom, I had to start in on the closet.”
“To start in on” means to begin with something.
I need to start in on my homework. Means, I need to begin my homework.
This is one of those confusing English expressions.
Where we use prepositions in addition to the verb, “start in on”, it all just means to begin, Usually, to begin that somewhat difficult or something you’ve been avoiding doing, you’ve been procrastinating to do.
I said that, “In my closet, I had boxes and bins, full of stuff.”
“Bins” are usually containers like box, sometime does not have lid on it.
A lid is a cover for a box.
So, a bin is a type of box.
I said, “Things in my boxes needed sorting.”
To sort means to put things in order, To separate things that needs to be separated.
I need to sort my socks and my underwear, so that all my socks are in one place and my underwear is somewhere else.
I said also that, “I need to vacuum the carpet.”
To vacuum of course means to use a machine (what we call a vacuum cleaner) to get the dirt off of the carpet.
I also said that, “I need to dust.”
Dust here is a verb. Meaning to take a piece of cloth, to take a small rag and wipe the dust off of the furniture, off of the table, off of the chairs and so forth.
So, dust is both a noun and a verb.
It means the actual dirt that you find in your house on a table or a chair and it also is a verb. Meaning to get rid of that dirt.
I said that, “I didn’t have any drapes.”
Drapes are long pieces of fabric of material that you hang on your window.
It’s like a big blanket on your window. heh.
We call those drapes.
You can have drapes and or you can have shades.
“Shades” are usually on a role and you pull the shade down and you can put the shade up, depending if you want light or darkness in your room.
After finishing my closet, I went on to clean my kitchen.
In my kitchen, I have a combination stove and oven.
A stove is the place where you cook food in pans. Usually, you can boil water on stove, you can fry eggs on stove and so forth.
An oven is like a box that is heated where you can bake a cake or put in a big turkey or chicken to cook. That’s the oven.
The fridge is a slang term, an informal expression meaning the refrigerator. That’s the fridge where we keep cold foods.
I mentioned that I needed to rinse off the shelves.
To rinse off (I actually said, “to rinse them all off.”) means to clean it usually with water and soap.
I said, “I was going to dump anything which had passed it’s expiration date.”
To dump is another one of those words meaning to get rid of, to throw out, to put in the trash.
The expiration date is the date usually on a package of food, on a carton of milk et cetera that says the last day it is safe to eat that food.
That’s the expiration date.
I said that, “I needed to Scrub clean the grease and stains from the stove.”
To scrub means to clean very hard, to use allot of muscle to clean something.
A stain is a spot caused by dirt that is very difficult to remove.
You can have a stain on a piece of clothing. You can have a stain on the carpet.
Stain is both a noun and a verb.
You can stain something. Meaning, you can cause a stain on that thing.
A dish rack is a place where you put wet dishes to dry. So, after you wash your dishes, you put the plates and the bowls and the cups and the glasses in to a dish rack.
Finally, I said that spring cleaning is always a mixed bag for me.
A mixed bag is an expression that means, there are good things and there are bad things.
There are positive things and there are negative things.
For me, going to the park is a mixed bag.
I like being outside with the trees, but I don’t like the flies the mosquitos.
It’s a mixed bag.
Well, that’s going to be the end of our Esl podcast today. As usual, we encourage you to email us at “eslpod@eslpod.com.”
Thank you again for listening. We’ll see you next time on Esl podcast.
Esl podcast is produced by center for educational development in Los Angeles, California.
This podcast is copyright 2005.