In my household, we apparently have a magical fairy who comes to make things disappear. She cleans the dishes, washes towels, cleans the bathroom, fills the soap dispenser, vacuums, and cleans out the refrigerator.
OH WAIT! That’s right, we don’t have a _______ Fairy. We have me.
I’m convinced that our roommate and his girlfriend don’t fully grasp that when you brush crumbs off of something onto the floor, they don’t disappear. Instead, they get ground into the area rug, leaving me with a delightful little mess to clean up. They also go in between couch cushions, which means that it is vital that the couch is vacuumed often. Given that I have a very high powered vacuum cleaner on a leather couch whose cushions need to basically be spread-eagle, it’s impossible for me to spread the couch cushions and vacuum all crumbs up. This makes vacuuming the living room a huge hassle.
On top of this, we live in a large urban area in the midst of a big food district. Which means we will see the occasional roach and mouse. It’s what happens when you live in a big city, and even the cleanest rowhomes & apartments will get them from time to time.
I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.
The problem is that vermin + food crumbs everywhere = very happy 4+ legged pals hanging out in your home. An exterminator won’t really help if you are spraying with poison and laying down traps if your home is still cluttered with crumbs everywhere. About a month or two ago, we laid down the law and made a “no eating in the living room” rule. Our roommate and his girlfriend (who are both in their mid-20s) have been told on multiple occasions that they can no longer eat on the couch and it’s been explained to them in detail why they can no longer eat on the couch.
The time that I thought they might actually start getting it was when I tried my hardest to scare the shit out of them with the info that we had caught 7 - oh yes, you read that correctly: SEVEN - mice in a no-kill mousetrap. They took it to heart for a whole two days, which is when we found an open bag of candy corn stored on the floor, 3 inches away from another mousetrap.
They’ve observed the “no eating on the couch” rule by eating a bag of microwave popcorn (as well as bagels, crackers, candy, yogurt, chips, etc.) on the couch. I think it doesn’t count because we weren’t in the room to glare at them or say something about it and because they brushed the kernels they could see onto the floor.
It’s okay though, because once it’s on the floor, it’s gone; it certainly isn’t ground into the area rug underneath the couch. That would be crazy talk!
