It's the 7a hour here in Los Angeles, and I'm done with my work for the week but the Home Depot and the nail salon aren't open yet so you're getting a bonus newsletter this week!
I have so many thoughts to share with you about robot vacs, but I'm waiting on a review to be published before I do, because I want to talk specifically about the two robot vacs I've tested this year, and then also very generally about robot vacs, who they’re best for, their limitations, all the fun stuff. While we wait, I figured I'd share a few recent articles I've written for the assorted places I write —mostly "I tried it!" type stuff + a new one about organizing for the Strategist — and then I also have this thing I'm fretting over that I want to ask you about. So! Some articles:
A Professional Organizer’s Guide to Storing Toilet Paper & Paper Towels | The Strategist, 11 June 2024
We Tried the Shaving Cream Stain-Removal Trick—The Results Were Unexpected |
Is a Tennis Ball the Secret to Removing Ugly Scuff Marks? | BHG, 31 May 2024
I tried the viral vegetable chopper that’s all over TikTok — here’s my review | CNN Underscored, 10 June 2024
How to Clean Hats, Including Cowboy Hats, Felt Hats, and More | BHG, 28 June 2024
I'm including that last one because -1- it features the expert from Stetson I mentioned in our wedding dress cleaning extravaganza and -2- there's a version of DAMP, NOT WET! in there that will make you laugh the way you laugh at a tiny child dressed up for church. Like, awww look at them playing at being an adult!
Okay so now let's talk about what's troubling me [wheels in whiteboard]. I spent last week in San Diego, in part just for funsies, in part for work. During the work portion of events (which, real talk, involved a Cutwater distillery tour, a fancy lunch, and a Padres game … rough life eh? Also as someone who is basically a human pineapple, I am strongly recommending Cutwater’s Pineapple Margarita. It’s so, so, so good.) someone asked that age old question: Who is messier, men or women?
Now, I know you know the answer! (The answer is that men and women are equally revolting and we should get rid of all of them.) As I chatted about the differences between men and women (women ask about washing their bras, men ask about cleaning their couches; women open their letters to me by apologizing, or asking me not to judge them, men open their letters by stating their credentials and assuring me of their keen minds), I got to thinking about What I Am To Do About the Men.
Here's what I mean by that: This space is shaping up to be very womanly. I am FINE with that! I went to a women's college, for crying out loud, I love a women's space! (I also love women but that is an entirely other post.) But I feel The Guilt. It makes me so anxious to think about writing about cleaning for women, when cleaning is a person thing, not a gender thing. But then, is it my responsibility to worry about that??
There was a time when I did feel it was my responsibility to worry about that, and I made a choice to plop my ass down where I knew men were and be like, "Hey! You wanna talk about ji*zz stains?" And yes, yes they did. Once I got them hooked with the good (gross) stuff —the ji*zz and the bathrooms that always smell like pee and the hockey gear, oh my God the hockey gear, they kind of started liking this whole cleaning business, or at least they didn't mind reading about it, and now we've got my old pals writing to me about cleaning their dishwashers. This is how revolutions happen, honestly.
But I don't know that I actually care anymore, and I also think I probably don't need to care. I'm the elderly now, and maybe it's fine for me to leave the revolutions to the young people. They're doing away with gender entirely anyway! (Sidebar: As a Gen Xer, I have to tell you that I am in love with the Gen Zers. They make the Millennials and the Boomers SO MAD and I adore every single thing they do.)
Okay so what are we doing about this? Are you subscribing your brothers to the newsletter to get some dudes in here?? Will you tell me I don't need to care??? I'm doing my part by sharing my fears and also admitting that maybe I just don't give a sh*t! There are a ton of things I love about getting older, including that I'm so surprised that I'm not as bothered by it as I would have expected, but the best part is the part where you get to care so much less about literally everything. It's like if burning a bra was a feeling.
