For All You Cleaning Freaks Like Me

I see you😎. Plus: A steamy new late-summer ATA Playlist for cleaning, cooking, dancing, and getting-into-The-Zone all weekend long☀️.

ICYMI! 🚨 For all of August, annual Paid subscriptions to ATA are 40% off! That means a huge chunk of our tiny, special world is up for grabs for just $30. More thrifting, more (mini) makeover magic, and more life lessons on doing a lot with a little. Come join us🧡🔥

I was literally just on FaceTime having my biweekly therapy appointment when I excitedly confessed that I had my carpet steam cleaned. I’m not sure where it came from, given I try to reserve those precious (and pricey) 45 minutes for talking about things like illogical anxiety or navigating narcissists, but on this particular day, it seemed very important.

Important mostly because it wasn’t until I read a write-up about this place in New York Magazine’s Best of New York 2023 edition a few months ago where they featured a local “green” carpet cleaner that was highly recommended. Which made me suddenly realize…wait, hold on a second—in all the eight years that we’ve been walking, lying, entertaining, LIVING on top of our main living room carpet/rug, not to mention a sizable amount of cat barf and a solid two years of baby reflux…not once have we had this rug cleaned. Like really cleaned….ever.

This moment of illumination had to be right up there with hearing for the first time about how often you’re really supposed to wash/change your bed sheets (once a week)…which, I don’t know, is basically MADNESS.

Rug time, blissfully unaware of laying on a rug that probably (definitely) needs to be (seriously) cleaned. Immediately😬.

So, I called. And well, New York Magazine write-ups can make scheduling a little challenging. But I got an appointment within a week, and dammit, if I was not ready. Naturally, though, it really got me thinking: Why is it such a revelation when we discover a dirty place for the first time? Like, unnervingly dirty…the high shelf in any room…the baseboards in your closest…how do they get THIS dusty?? (rest assured, my oven will probably require extra therapy of its own). I had a baby who has been rolling around on this carpet for, IDK…she’s almost five! Who doesn’t have a carpet cleaned…ever? Well, it turns out a lot of people. Because everyone I shared my recent story with, never had their carpet cleaned either.

So, there you go: We’re all gross.

No cat barf here…

You might think that a 10x12 heavy-duty hand-loomed Belgian carpet might take hours to clean, but NO. It was all but over in under an hour. Of course, you can imagine my genuine thrill when the lovely technician managing the job asked me if I wanted to see the water after the 30-minute cleaning was over (like a hydro-powered vacuum cleaner on a 10-level volume…but, you know, I loved every screeching minute of it). “OMG, PLEASEEEEE!” I pleaded. Do not pour that dirty gold down the toilet without letting me see it—praise it, thank that dirt, Brooklyn dust, grime, and (in my head I thought this) everything DONE and dead and more than ready to be discarded in my life….just one last peek before we say goodbye.

And so, together, we poured the filthy carpet water down the toilet and giggled like old friends. It was black as tar and seemed to carry with it every bad piece of advice, mistake, or impulse buy I ever made (not to mention every hour spent watching Billions or Emily In Paris). That’s what I told myself as we flushed. And you know what, it wasn’t just my carpet that felt new after the cleaning was over. I think this whole thing was a quick but most excellent reminder to myself not to wait so long next time to get to that hard spot—the one that perpetually eludes me…or most of us, but feels great when we finally do tackle it, even if we need to bring in a little professional help to get to the other side. Because when it’s done…it’s done. Or clean. Or mended. Whatever has been sitting around waiting for you to notice it, so it can be new again, too.❤️

If this Belgian rug could talk. The After…not just sort of clean, but REALLY clean✨✨✨.

So, there it is…summer is almost over, and after eight blessed years I finally got our beautiful Belgian rug cleaned. It took all of an hour to do and $250. A ding dang bargain, if you ask me. You know what else is worth every penny—aka PRICELESS? A new, just-for-you A Tiny Apt. dancey-vibey-moody playlist for Getting-Into-the-Zone-style cleaning, cooking, dancing, Barbie Dream-House building, or whatever feels good as the last weeks of summer start to wind down (I’ve shared this with a few people to preview, and so far we’ve got Zero Skips 😎).

This playlist also features some of my soulmate artists, including George Michael (I just went down a Wham! and George Michael Freedom UnCut rabbit hole and it was very, very hard to get me out of it…so many tears missing him and being completely astonished by all the unbelievably GREAT music he gave us in his short time here). And also The Pointer Sisters (here’s to Anita Pointer, who passed away earlier this year and was an icon in every/any way a person could be). Closing out with a snap of one of my most treasured Pointer Sisters albums, “Energy" (I featured “Fire” on an earlier ATA playlist…another perfect song🔥). Here’s to soaking up what’s left of summer. Don’t get COVID and please have a beautiful weekend, friends…xxCb

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