Pick-A-Day

March 2008
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Spring Cleaning

I have been in cleaning mood this week—sometimes my cleaning productivity hurts my work productivity, but all in all, it’s probably a good thing.

When I got to my office yesterday, I realized that I couldn’t find anything on my desk—and that, in fact, a lot of the stuff on my desk was somewhat vintage and not germane to any of my current projects. I ended up going through papers, recycling papers, and then dusting: there was a thick layer of dust in some spots and I was somewhat embarrassed to find all of it.

By the time I was finished, I’d chewed up most of the morning and I had to rush through the essential hot items of the day.

It’s no different at home. Last weekend I was cleaning before the maid came. I’ve come to realize that no matter how wonderful maids are, if you don’t clean before they come, they’ll spend their time cleaning the wrong things and putting stuff away in places that you’ll never find it, like putting the pans that belong in the cabinet to the right of the stove in the oven, or the wine glass that was on the drying rack somewhere other than the shelf with all the other wine glasses.

Today I tasked myself with one of the worst chores: the maids are good at cleaning nearly everything, but the inside of the shower doors—they never get in the shower space and some how they miss the slowly growing mold-like crap. Once or twice a year I get out the industrial strength shower cleaner, a sponge, and clean the inside. It usually doesn’t take too long and it’s a cleaning task where one feels a sense of accomplishment: you can see the shower door return to its natural white state.

My spring cleaning, both at home and work, are not complete. At the office I only cleaned the desk, there is the rest of the space to go through, and at home I need to clean my desk of its stray papers, as well as some other mundane tasks.

This weekend is when I finish off the apartment’s more obscure cleaning chores.

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