Isn't it funny how the most mundane household items can bring great joy? I don't mean coffee machines, or dishwashers, or massage chairs - not every household has those, so they're still luxury items as far as I'm concerned. I'm talking really mundane here...A couple of days ago we had a rental inspection. It's a routine thing, we get them every three months. The property manager comes and walks around and through our house, checking for damage and maintenance issues to report back to the home owner. The problem is, like so many rental tenants, we feel a lot of pressure to have the house as clean as possible for the inspection. This is partly because of the stigma of being renters - everyone hears stories about the bad ones who trash the houses they live in; damaging walls, piling rubbish everywhere, etc. Those people give the rest of us a bad name and we worry that we may be judged harshly if we have clutter. We know if the house looks messy, the home owner might think it's a sign that we couldn't be bothered looking after the place.
Personally, we've also had a bad experience in the past with an agent at another house we lived in. She ignored our explanation that we had been away for most of the week prior to inspection with one of our children in hospital in another town, and judged our house cleaning rather than our house care (and there is a difference). She actually said to me, "Your house should look like a show home when I come to inspect it." That's not true of course, but I'm sure it made her feel good to say it. She probably felt even better when she gave us a bad report and we nearly weren't approved for the next rental we applied for at another real estate agent. It doesn't take much to make a family homeless these days. We had many sleepless nights thanks to that woman and I actually had visions of us living beside the river in a tent (which I would have happily named after her).
Anyway, back to the story. One habit my charming family has is to drop their dirty washing on the laundry floor for me. There is a hamper in the bathroom, as well as in a couple of the bedrooms, but when there is something that needs to be washed more urgently, or is really wet, it will often be thrown straight into the laundry. The floor is tiled and can handle it .... but I was getting sick of having a pile of clothes to step around whenever I was in there. It was easy enough to throw the lot into the washing machine (out of sight for the inspection), but I knew I needed a solution for the longer term.
Which brings me to the mundane household item I referred to ... a washing basket. I bought an extra one yesterday and I love it. On sale at Big W, cheap, plain white plastic with holes for air flow and handles for carrying. It seems a silly thing to get excited over, but I did! It now holds pride of place just inside the laundry door, but out of the walkway, where everyone can throw their washing and I know it's all neatly in place. I know, I know, small things and all that ...
Of course, the basket may not look quite as good to me when it's full of washing, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Probably tomorrow.
