Washing Windows
There is a lot of administrative work when you have a store - or a studio that acts like a store three days a week. There are sales taxes to pay, items to be added or deleted from the website, tags to be created, decisions to be made about where we should be going in the future, booths spaces to be rented, supplies to be ordered, packages to be wrapped and mailed, books to be ordered, books to be balanced and a thousand other things that need to be done. And none of that counts the work we started all this to do - spinning, weaving, knitting and crochet with the hemming and trimming and braiding and tagging to get the things we make ready to sell. But then there is the grunt work...
I'm basically a pretty clean person. I don't like piles of trash or litter. I can stand the clutter for only so long before I start to feel claustrophobic and I really need to clean off all the horizontal surfaces. I've never been as concerned about the floor as I am about the table tops but I wrote this blog back in June of 2015 entitled Yarn Store Rules. Number one on our list of rules, after visiting over 20 yarns stores in New York City, was cleanliness and I encouraged yarn stores to clean up their floors. It's in print and out there is cyberspace so I can't very will blow off the concept at our place. I remember to sweep or mop as needed every week.
Yes, dusting and mopping are at the top of the grunt work list because they happen the most often. Washing the windows is at the bottom of that list, not because it's not important but because you only have to do it a few times each year.
I should tell you that I used to have a wonderful window washer. Steve Harris had worked all over the country washing windows high above the ground from scaffolding or a boatswain's chair - like Chicago and Las Vegas. And he was really good at it. He would show up at my house and quietly work his way around the house and the studio and when he was finished the windows all glistened. Then he retired. I love Steve and his wife Doris. Steve now owns my huge Cranbrook loom and has done a fabulous job of teaching himself to weave. And he is loving his retirement but that left us with no one but ourselves to wash the windows.
Ron got busy before Christmas and washed all the windows in the house. I've been washing all the windows in the studio this past week. In both cases, the goal was not to have the same glistening windows that Steve always provided but to have windows you could see through. We definitely lowered our expectations. I was thrilled with how much brighter and cleaner our house looked for Christmas and I'm just as thrilled at how much brighter and cleaner the studio looks.
I've pulled off all the screens to be washed but only put some of them back up. The studio has doors in the front and back of the building that work really well to get a nice breeze through the place. Those screens had to go back up. And the one south facing window needs it's screen to block out some of the oh so strong sunlight, but the rest of the windows don't get opened all that often so don't need their screens. In part that's because all the window sills are crammed with photos and dolls and treasures and moving them all out of the way is a pain. Also this place is pretty full of furniture so getting to the windows to open them can be somewhat problematic. All the windows are brighter without the screens and since I'll be storing them on the side porch, they will be easy to install if I want to open the windows.