A warning led to a weekend of cleaning.
We’re expecting a visit in the next week or so from the fire marshal and a colleague said I might want to address several likely violations in my office at the Muscatine Journal — something about having extension cords plugged into extension cords. And one thing led to another, a phenomenon a friend who is a whiz at home remodeling refers to as “while we’re at it.”
You may have practiced this without knowing if, for example, you decided while repainting the kitchen to install a new dishwasher while you were at it.
That’s what happened in my office. Properly fixing the power-cord situation required drilling a hole in the back of my desk, tearing apart the computer and my desk, running all the cords and cables through the newly drilled hole and hooking everything up again. It only made sense at that point to clean the desk and other surfaces. And if I was going to go to that much work, I decided to also clean the built-in cabinets in my office. I hadn’t touched these cabinets in the two years since I occupied the office. I found things that went back several years — decades, even.
It’s all clean and organized now. I hope it will make me more organized and efficient.
The cleaning extended beyond my office, too. On Saturday morning, I cleaned my locker at the Muscatine Community Y. It needed it, too. I guess I’m just a slob at heart.
Brome Hill 