I’m very tidy.
I even wash my shoes regularly — my running shoes. In fact, I was talking to my friend K. recently and I was complaining that my new shoes were dirty. The new shoes in question were white running shoes and they were starting to get a bit dirty in spots, so I was telling her how I wash them with a special orange soap and then spot polish them with some special running shoe scuff stuff. She seemed a bit bored but at the same time oddly fascinated with my shoe procedures. She remarked: “You are very clean aren’t you? Not just with your things but in the home too.” Yeah, I sure am.
And just this week I was talking to my other friend J. about our favourite cleaning products. I mentioned my favorite orange soap again. In case you’re curious it’s called “Orange TKO” and it really is the best cleaning product on the market today — Magic Erasers are a very close second.
My dwelling is also very clean and tidy. I can sometimes get a bit messy but my messy is not the messy of regular (read normal) people…or so I’ve been told. I like to watch those shows where serious messies get interventions. My favorite is Neat with Hellen Buttigieg. (I also admire Hellen’s fashion-sense and footwear).
But there’s one place where I’m not as neat. My office. It can get a bit messy. My job involves paper — lots of it — and I hate to file things, so I put it off. (Note to potential future employers: I do file eventually — and with verve — but I do it in great big bursts). I also keep too much stuff around just in case I’ll need it later. I also like to read all the latest news about my profession and so my “to read” file is actually a gigantic pile of magazines and newsletters. But I can’t just recycle the stuff — I need to read it!
Today was one of my big burst days . My office looks a bit worse actually since my messes were hidden before I got it into my head to clean up. For example, I have carefully labeled boxes that say “to be filed” and they are labeled by category (I’m not messy like other people). And these boxes were inside my credenza or under my desk. Now, some boxes are in the open waiting for inspection and allocation. I did 3 today and I have 2 more to go tomorrow.
By Monday my office will be clean and tidy and I bet no one will even notice I did anything.
BTW: When in NYC I visited the Puma store and I was very sad to see that there were no special shoes calling my name. Most were just like the ones we have here. Also, that mystery pair of blue/sliver ones was nowhere to be found.
I used to wear “Chucks“. They were great, because you could just throw them in the wash. Think Chucks “classic”. They were cool because they weren’t cool (they might be a little more trendy now). I had my first pair in jr. high – low cut plain canvas. My last pair I had was when I worked at an Indonesian university (Iman Bonjol IAIN-Padang). They were a red canvas high cut that I destroyed at HASH. I got nostalgic looking at the Converse website and I think the next casual walking shoes I get will be “Chucks”.
I love Chucks too! This may not shock but I have a pair — brown suede hi-tops — so they’re not as traditional as the ones you had (and hopefully will have again soon). BTW the HASH looks like fun.