Pushing Rubbermaid to head Department of Agriculture

In the last 48 hours I have become my own worst nightmare trying to clean my apartment for my mother's arrival tonight. In fact, anytime I try to do a clean up of this nature it generally takes me several days longer than expected - I always find a mini-project that sidetracks me. For example, last night I found a bag full of samples: 3 packs of Kiehl's body wash cream, 2 packs of anti-wrinkle cream, about 8 different types of body lotion, etc. (I also went through my back-up makeup bag and threw out about 12lbs of worthless eye shadow that caused me to have an allergic (read "swelling") reaction).

Once the evening rounded the 11pm corner, I went looking for a glove that is meant to wipe up pet hair. And since my red duvet cover has recently glowed a slight "orange" tint from the layer of Murray hair, I figured now is the time to take care of it.

Not quite sure where this glove is hiding, I default to a big, blue Rubbermaid bin in my kitchen. This bin has been home to many o' pet items over the last few years: dog food, collars, E collars, torn up rope toys, kitty costumes. I start to dig around hoping this thing would just jump out at me, and instead, to my surprise, I find I have a lot more in here than I thought. So I dig deeper.

Let's call this part of the story: foreshadow.

Before I even complete my journey to the bottom of the bin I stop to notice small, brown shiny particles stuck to the velcro piece of one of Vera's old winter coats. Upon closer examination, it appears as if this coat has been bombarded with crushed exoskeleton. And anyone who knows me well, knows I DON'T do exoskeleton.

I keep going.

I keep going until I notice there is a third of a large bag of open dog food that I'd long since forgotten about. Right next to it was a paper bag with something in it, though I dared not to find out. The ENTIRE bottom half of the bin, including the base, was covered in dead maggots and little crunchy bugs. They were all over the food, stuck inside the bristles of a brush, tangled inside chew toys. Even part of the paper bag had been chewed up so there were dusty particles that had fallen to the bottom, making the yellowy maggots indistinguishable. I almost threw up. I mean, I really almost threw up.

I saved as much as I could including a bag of leashes and collars, along with a couple pinch collars...but everything else was went right out into the alley dumpster. I wonder what I must have looked like, dressed in my pajamas, kicking around a Rubbermaid bin at 11:30p in an alley.

What I learned from this is not so much dwindle down hoarded items, but rather, if you do, always ALWAYS store them in a Rubbermaid bin.