The cleaning crew is at our old house, wiping and erasing any trace that Earl and I once lived there. Hiring a cleaning service was one of the conditions we agreed to as part of the ability to stay in the house sixty days after closing. Even though the new homeowner benefits, there is something cathartic about it for me.
One of the cleaning ladies found the salt and pepper shakers that match my snowman dishes. They were tucked in the back of a drawer and got overlooked in the packing process. Another cleaning lady found the missing piece to the downstairs refrigerator.
And a third got a built-in desk cleaner than it had ever been in our tenure.
All this was a far cry from how we found the house on our own Move-In Day in 2000. There was dirt everywhere, as if the owners before us left town in a hurry. That was when I hired Two Blondes and a Bucket to make the place somewhat ready to receive our stuff. And it was Two Blondes and a Bucket who made the place pristine today.
I can honestly say that all the people we hired for the lawn and the sprinkler system and the snowplowing were with us a long time too. Going forward our lawn will be mowed and the grass sprinkled and our walks shoveled, courtesy of the condo association. So it’s the end of an era for others as well as for Earl and me.
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