Just read this housekeeping "tip" from Beneath the Couch Cushions' Friday Funny:
"Mix one-quarter cup pine-scented household cleaner with four cups of water in a spray bottle. Mist the air lightly. Leave dampened rags in conspicuous locations. Develop an exhausted look, throw yourself onto the couch, and sigh, 'I clean and I clean and I still don't get anywhere...'"
Every Saturday morning at the Coast Guard Academy there would be room inspections before being dismissed for our weekend liberty. In the beginning of my 4/c year (Freshman year), I used to sweat the inspections, I think we all did, because if we got caught with any violations, we were disciplined for them. I remember working really hard Friday evening and Saturday morning just so we could all pass the "white" glove inspections. Well, as we got used to the system and as we discovered that we all just wanted to get out of the barracks, we realized that thorough inspections were conducted about once a month and the rest of the inspections were just walk throughs.
As we figured this out, we all discovered ways to get away with these inspections without having to kill ourselves just to get our rooms spotlessly clean. I had three "tricks". The first was to bring my dirty laundry down into the laundry room about an hour before the inspection. That way, my closet was empty and any clean clothes I had were nicely folded. The second was to throw any prohibited items into the storage closet above the clothes closet. The inspectors never looked up there because one would have to stand on a chair to gain access to it and there just wasn't time to do that, even on those thorough inspection days. My prohibited item was a pink bean bag. I don't know whatever happened to it. Maybe I left it up there when I left...Hmmm...My last "trick" (along with my roomie's) was to do a quick buff on the floor and surface dust, then I (we) would take a spray cleaner and spritz it around the room just before the inspection. It worked all the time! My (our) room smelled and looked clean and that's all that mattered to the inspectors. Sometimes, the inspectors just passed by our room.
This isn't a great testimony for the verse that says to work as unto the Lord, but there were some leaders who just abused their power so much and made the biggest deal out of the smallest issue. Therefore, I needed (we all needed) to find that balance between following the rules and becoming the "victims" of those who abused their power.
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