It’s the holidays. In my house, that means one thing.

Cleaning. Lots of cleaning.

Actually, this year I’m not hosting much of anything so the cleaning hasn’t been as intense and horrifying as it might be. But still, the daughter home from college deserves fresh sheets, the Christmas tree is shedding needles like a razor-happy pubescent lad, and the oh-so-seasonal cold rain has the hibernating lawn turned into a muddy mess, which the dogs track onto the tile floor like proudly finger-painting toddlers.

My son came downstairs the other day. “I love that smell,” he said.

Was he talking about cookies baking, about the piney scent of holiday greenery?

No. He was talking about the scent of Murphy’s Oil Soap from the freshly- washed floor.

His comment took me by surprise. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this was a scent of home he’d known since birth. I started thinking of what other things my kids might associate with home.

The sight of the living room coffee table laden with splayed-open books and towers of magazines. The sound of their dad’s power saw screaming in the workroom at all hours of the day and night. The taste of their favorite dinner of all time - Oriental flavor Oodles of Noodles. The feel of the fresh-from-the-dryer, toasty-clean laundry I pile on top of them as they sit on the family room couch, staring mindlessly at the television, oblivious to my toil.

And the scent of Murphy’s Oil Soap.

What evokes a sense of home for you?