Day: November 10, 2015

HAND (Housing and Neighborhood Development) inspections for my apartment complex were yesterday. They inspect every five years or so, I think? They’re concerned with making sure rental properties are up to code and habitable, so they check smoke detectors, make sure fire extinguishers are up to date, test sinks, tubs, showers, exhaust fans, etc., and check all egress points (doors and especially bedroom windows). It doesn’t take long, but it’s nice if your apartment or house doesn’t look like it was struck by a tornado. Which mine did, after weeks of frantic arting.

So I’ve spent every waking moment since last Thursday deep cleaning ALL THE THINGS. Under sinks, closets, drawers. I took several carloads of stuff to Goodwill, several more went to the recycling center, and somehow I still had a huge mountain of crap to take to the trash dumpsters. I also washed windows (gross!), cleaned the patio, did a huge pile of laundry, vacuumed and re-vacuumed and shampooed carpets, scrubbed floors, rearranged the bedroom (see above! Now with turquoise curtains!), moved around some paintings, and cleaned, sorted, and rearranged some of the junk stored in my work room.

I am tired of cleaning. Everything hurts. The best (and by best, I mean worst) part was moving things back into the bedroom after emptying it and putting down the rug that had been in the living room. Because rugs on top of carpet are a pain in the ass and will shift if you even look at them sideways, I had to make sure to completely lift the furniture in the air, instead of sliding it across the floor. Do you know how difficult it is to lift and carry a full size mattress all by yourself? I don’t think my back will ever recover. And also to do all that while not tripping over whichever cat has decided that that’s the perfect time to get under your feet.

But it’s done now, and everything is sparkling clean. I also devised a Piglet-proof window treatment for the bedroom that doesn’t look like ass. No more waking up at 3am to a cat mangling the blinds.