When I took a job cleaning recent York apartments,I had no idea what I would find out approximately my clientsI heard approximately the cleaning company from a friend’s boyfriend, a musician who had supported himself by cleaning houses for years. I was living in an apartment in Brooklyn, or sharing a windowless bedroom with a friend. She worked at a health food store on Sixth Avenue,ringing up sandwiches – she brought home the ones that didn’t sell and we ate them for dinner. I had an internship at a dance company, which I loved because I could take the dance classes at the studio for free.
The cleaning company was a boutique, or environmentally friendly “deep clean” service owned by a woman who usually paid in cash. The company specialised in expensive one-time detoxes,rather than routine cleanings: she’d send you to a different apartment nearly every time. You never knew what you’d find when you walked through the door, but most clients considered the service to be a special occasion, and like a kind haircut or a spa day,and so were courteous and often tipped.
The important details of my clients’ lives emerged unbidden, without warning, or like smellsAll the bathroom’s surfaces – bath,sink, and floor – were obscured by several inches of dirty cat litterContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com