Cleaning Makes My Apartment Messier

Saturday, October 7, 2006

Not necessarily dirtier, on the contrary! Of course cleaning should always do some good but every time I get around to doing some serious work on this apartment it always seems to look worse.

But finally! This place is looking great! I vacuumed 5 times yesterday, bought two floor chairs which I love, got speakers for my computer (finally) and spent a little less than $200 none of which went towards winter clothing. Ouch.

First, I vacuumed 5 times yesterday because I had my windows open…ahhhhh that should explain everything! But it somehow doesn’t. See, even though I have screens over my windows, for some reason dirt get’s into my apartment anyway and I just can’t seem to keep my tatami clean! Also, I noticed more dirt because everything was off the floor. My futon was either airing out on the porch or folded up in the corner, the couch is gone and the chairs don’t take up much space on the floor. Also, a typhoon recently skimmed Japan and though there was no rain, for the past two days there has been a freak wind that has been blowing crap all over my apartment!

Speaking of wind, so, I’ve actually started enjoying riding my bike with a skirt. I usually have to keep pulling it down past my knees because I feel slutty if I don’t (Japanese culture is ruining my style) but there is this one skirt that I really like (on sale, $5 and Uni Qlo) that is so breezy and comfortable that I’ve started wearing it a lot. Because it’s white, I usually wear a slip underneath it. Kills the effect but is completely necessary. Anyway, yesterday as I was riding my bike, a big gust of wind blew up my skirt and a man driving by actually made an “oooo” sound. Thing was, he couldn’t see my panties. All he saw was my slip!

Back to cleaning, I went through one of my closets because I had the faint idea that I saw a box for a Christmas tree in the back of it. There was in fact a small plastic Christmas tree as well as three electric heats, one electric blanket (which I bought from a previous JET) a badminton set, my vacuum, a random back pack, and about 20 old boxes for appliances. So, I vacuumed, went through the boxes, broke them down and separated them into their recycling sections, and vacuumed again. I was about to put away a little paper bag under the sink when I noticed something (can’t remember what, and truly it’s not important) I then ended up going through my entire cabinet unit! I threw away 4 bottle openers, strainers I will never use, old cooking tins (the disposable kind) and I was left with a taco yaki maker that I just don’t know what to do with! I don’t want to throw it away but Geez! I’m don’t want it here!

Adam came over later and helped me shop at some of the local stores. We picked out some good reclining floor chairs ($30 each) and then decided to cook dinner with Tsubasa instead of going out because we wanted to save money. Problem was, I ended up buying a bunch of things that my apartment needed so the bill was really high! $40 for an “easy” meal. It was easy too but still!

While Adam was here, I told him about the badminton set and the taco yaki maker. He told me to sell the maker and give the badminton set to my neighbors. The thing is, that I haven’t actually spoken to my neighbors yet. I say “hi” when I see them…but I never see them. Yesterday, one of the girls and her friend were making a lot of noise playing in front of the apartment. They would ride on their rollerblades across the hall and I looked through the tiny window on my bedroom floor and saw them skate by. Adam then got down on the floor, stuck his head through the window, and started waving around badminton rackets. When one of the girls was curious enough to come over and look he told them to take it. They tried to return it later and I just don’t know how to say in Japanese “I don’t want them, dear God take them off my hands, I can’t keep it here for a month until the next garbage day!”

Which, incidentally, I totally missed the metal day this past Friday so I’m going to have to wait ANOTHER month to throw away that crap. GUH! Although…Tsubasa told me that he would help take my couch and stereo to the dump (they don’t pick that crap up, I have to drop it off) so maybe I can just take all my other garbage with it! Adam has a lot of stuff he’s been hording away on his porch as well. It’ll be an exciting garbagey trip!