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Sunday, June 29, 2014

helping a friend

Yesterday the family went over to a friend's apartment to clean. About two years back, my friend met this girl online. It's my experience successful online relationships are few and far between. When he told me about this girl he met, the first words out of my mouth were; 'Are you sure it's a girl?'
Yeah, I'm just a tad bit cynical.
He was sure, and actually flew out to Poland to meet her. Apparently they hit it off because she is flying here and staying with him for two months. So last week, he basically begged all his friends to help him out.
'She's coming OMG! I gotta get my place cleaned up. She can't see me like this!'
Typical bachelor pad. If the health department saw his bathroom, the place would be shut down and sprayed for decontamination. About half a dozen other people showed up to help out. We moved half the furniture out and the other half moved aside so we could vacuum the rug.
When we started, there was so much flotsam one could barely move in the apartment. One small corridor existed from the front door to the bedrooms, kitchen and the front door. If you wanted to go from the bedroom to the kitchen, you had to go to the front door first. 
We were making a bit of noise and I was informed that the roommate was resting, to which I replied: 'If he comes out and gives my girls a hard time, I'll let my middle daughter rip him a new one. Any pieces that survive will answer to me. Later on I met the roommate and he was pretty cool.
Putting on my best tough guy face, I told him point blank: If my girls ask you for something, such as sponges or bleach. Get it for them. Try not to cry when they throw stuff out. Indeed, there were old boxes from the wide screen TV he bought months ago. Walking into that place, I felt like Gordon Ramsey looking at one of the worst kitchen nightmares. I then made two trips for additional cleaning supplies. Afterward, another guy and myself unclogged the vacuum cleaner. As long as I live, I will never see a hairball that big... ever. Seriously, it was the size of a volleyball. 
This needs to be put in perspective. Those who know me and have seen my house can attest it isn't the neatest patch of Texas. I'm not a complete slob, but I'm no neat freak. Usually I hit the middle ground. Not the best I can be, not the worst either. Compared to my buddy, you could perform surgery in my house.
Trying my best not to come down on him for letting it get that bad, I instead tried looking for the silver lining. My friend reached a point where he could no longer live like he was. He was reaching out for help. Plus, there's a girl involved. He wants to improve himself to make the best impression. Deep down I hope we gave him a good start. At least I didn't call hoarders on him.
When we left, he had discovered he had about 10 square feet more apartment after we threw out, condensed and packed stuff that was laying about.
You'd be amazed at what you find when you straighten and clean.
My friend is sort of like a little brother to me. that said, I'm going to straighten out my place before guests arrive in a few days. I'm not sure it's a pecking order, or trying to see who's better, but I'm taking this to the next level, at least for a little bit.

1 comment:

oversomnia said...

Hahaha, now that's cute, since when I arrived, I thought the apartment was still filthy. And I've been told that I'm very messy! And the next time I visited he didn't bother to do this much cleaning. I wish you could see the apartment after I've been through with it, though. I mean it was so clean-ish. Anyway, cool blog, I'll spy on it every now and then ;) Warm regards from Poland, please say hi to Carol and the girls from Sylwia :)