There's no law saying that your role model has to be someone older than you and one of my role model is Terrance, a sixteen year old kid. Well, he's probably more like eighteen by now; he was sixteen when I first met him.
Terrance is this kid that I hired at my old job. He was what the company was looking for- fashion forward, knowledgeable about current pop/counter culture, social, and responsible- and he was also very smart, funny and polite. He was the kind of kid that gives you hope for the future generation. One thing I really admired about Terrance was that he was very clean, like Monk clean, clean bordering on OCD.
One of the most inspiring thing he ever told me was that he once invited his friends over to his house and they said, "Wow, your house smells like nothing."
That's what I really want, a house that smells like nothing. Don't get me wrong, flowers smell nice and so do cookies in the oven but there's just something about a distinct smell that just seems... inorganic. It's sad, I suppose, but a culture of candle, spray, diffusers, and such has conditioned me to believe that a scent is a cover up. You know how a truly fresh fish doesn't have a smell, well I am starting to believe that a truly clean house shouldn't have a smell.
Right now, my house smells. I wish I can say it's a nice smell but it's not. There's the faint smell of bacon from last night, the faint smells of apple scented candle, and, if you're in the kitchen, the faint smell of garbage that needs to be taken out. Gross, right? So, no more Fabreeze and scented stuff. I'm going to try to not keep gross garbage overnight, make sure the sink is always empty, and... well, can't do too much about the food smell... I'm going to wash all the curtains and pillow covers, make sure the air vents are clean, watch out for molds, etc, etc, etc.
1 comment:
I think there is a beauty in lingering food smells. When my best friend's parents visited us in Chicago they bought a bunch of food and made us a beautiful Italian meal. Upon entering my apartment after taking them to the train I noticed the strong warm smell of balsamic vinegar. This was how their house always smelled. It was the smell of Kate's home, of a childhood spent playing in her room and devising stories to write together. It was the smell of Kathryn in the kitchen and Erik painting. Smell is the sense with the most memories attached.
I agree, rotten garbage and fake scents are gross, but I'm not sure that you need to eradicate all smells. Your home is lived in, after all.
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