I squeegeed my carpet tonight.
I heard a tip recently that a squeegee works wonders at getting pet hair up and off of whatever it is that’s overly furry — with the exception of the pet itself. I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate being accosted by a rubber-edged contraption at the end of a long handle. During some house cleaning a few weeks ago, I wondered if vacuuming really was as worthwhile as I thought it was; I stumbled across the tip within a week of wondering. This evening I ran a few errands, one of which included purchasing a small squeegee so that I could conduct the experiment at home.
Whoa.
Yes, it works. It is a veritable magnet for pet fur that you can’t even see, and that a vacuum apparently isn’t interested in nabbing. Gross.
I spent close to two hours killing time, scooting on my behind around the spare room — then the front living room — all the while squeegeeing my carpet with combing motions. It was somewhat cathartic and oddly satisfying, in the same way that picking a zit and witnessing the beginning of its demise is satisfying. Oh, the massive hairball that I was left with. It could’ve been mistaken for a Toy Poodle.
Jack, my black rescue kitty, seems to appreciate the effort. I figured he’d get busy re-furring the carpet with some flip-flopping shenanigans as an expression of gratitude, but instead he’s showing his appreciation in other ways: he’s in my lap as I write, curled up and acting asleep, but clearly not — his motorboat of a purr gives him away. Every now and again he’ll look up at the monitor and the cursor flitting across the screen will catch his eye. His attention span is short, however, and he goes back to his curled up position a few seconds later.
After a week of water leak issues here and there and more repairs looming on the horizon, squeegeeing my carpet wasn’t exactly an activity that was super high on my to-do list. I just happened to find myself armed with the right tools, a bit of time and — voila! Happy carpet. Sometimes the things in life that are time-sucking chores are exactly the things we need to do in order to feel less burdened. At the time, it may be anything but freeing, but so long as the right tools are in place and we make time for the unpleasant tasks that our worlds require, a weight can be lifted. For the renewal and peace which follows an unpleasant but completed task, I am thankful.
