You guys.
They moved my old refrigerator and beneath it there was SO. MUCH. BROWN. SLUDGE.
I recoiled as if I was bit by a rat. (I also wondered for a moment if a rat could be living in the sludge.)
These are the two phrases that went through my mind again and again scraping the one inch goooo off of my floor and then as I wiped down the absolutely disgusting shelves of our old fridge before relocating it into our garage.
“WE LIVE IN ABJECT FILTH!”
and, as I slowly gave up on actually getting every single crumb and smudge, but continued to fight the good fight . . .
“DON’T LET PERFECTION BE THE ENEMY OF PROGRESS.”
(Apparently the actual aphorism is “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good” which is attributed to Voltaire who himself was quoting an Italian proverb but I mean, close enough. Or maybe my version is actually better.)
Both things, it turns out, are true in the way that all things that you hate to admit are true. But those weren’t the only big takeaways from my four hour adventure in fridge-land:
- It has to get messy to get cleaned up.
- In order to have motivation to do a thing you have to first look the disgusting sludge in the eye.
- You have to be vulnerable to strangers to help move the fridge: hey strangers see my goo.
- Sometimes you have to drill a new hole for an entirely new water line (hey plumber, don’t forget to turn on the hot water after doing so) because the new fangled shiny things aren’t compatible with the old line.
- I live in abject filth, but other people do too.
- A lot of times your so-called family and friends will disperse the minute there is a job that big revealed. Don’t despair. Just do it yourself and make them feel really guilty later.
- Don’t let perfectionism be the enemy of progress.
- The La La Land soundtrack is excellent cleaning fuel.
- JUST GET THE SECOND FRIDGE. HOW DID WE WAIT THIS LONG TO GET THE SECOND FRIDGE?! WE HAVE FIVE PEOPLE IN THIS FAMILY!
- If the first person you call doesn’t help you, try a different customer service number.
- Ask the questions. Ask all the dumb questions.
- They don’t make ‘em like they used to.
- Sometimes new things take some getting used to. And you’ve gotta flush out the chemical smell to drink the water. (Seriously, does anybody have any tips to fix this? It STILL tastest like chemicals!)
- No one in your so-called family will care about your brilliant new organizational scheme so write them a note so they remember.
- You have to establish habits (every week clean out the fridge before shopping and meal planning) or you will revert to your natural, abject-filth-state.
That’s all I got, but the good news is, the Rusts have SEVERAL home projects we will conquer over the break. I’ll keep you posted. It’s sure to be revelatory.