I cleaned out a kitchen cabinet today.
Some of you probably don't care nor believe that this
statement is in any way dangerous at all.
Some of you out there, though, you know exactly how harmful action like
this is. You see, once one cabinet has
been disinfected, more cabinets will follow.
Then another and another. And it
will spread to the drawers, like some reverse plague.
After the kitchen, the bathroom becomes fair game. Then the linen closet. Then other closets (thankfully there are only
three tiny closets in this place). Then
dresser drawers. And then … then … then…
The basement.
It has already started.
I am searching for new shades for two rooms, new curtains, new bolsters,
cleaning carpets, cleaning furniture, searching for chair pads, and buying new
welcome mats. I am pricing out putting
up my own artwork and prints of my photographs on the walls rather than
bothering with someone else's measly work, you know, like Winslow Homer or
Claude Monet or Rembrandt or M.C. Escher.
Okay, maybe Escher; he was damn talented. But nobody else.
The worst of it is I know what happens next. I am a tenant-at-will and have been here
forever. My current neighbors are quiet,
and my landlords were just over looking at the rotted back door that finally
fell apart two days ago. I kiddingly
said they would probably throw me out now.
They told me about repairs and remodeling and my quiet neighbors moving
and the thought of selling the back units (one of which I live in) as condos.
This is why I never decorate or make a place my own. I never know quite how long I might be
staying and the curtains never fit the same from place to place. And then there's the artwork, the welcome
mats, the chair pads, the furniture, the bolsters, and the carpets I cleaned. These are the reasons why I should not be
cleaning out cabinets. It's all because
of canned food that I will soon be homeless with a bunch of home décor items
that don't connect.
Or maybe I'm just exaggerating in order to prevent myself
from cleaning out kitchen cabinet #2 and starting the entire chain of events
that will force me to actually turn this house into a home, like it should've
been all along.
This much I do know for certain: One cabinet is done. Maybe that's just enough for now.
