I’m about to admit something embarrassing: I’m not perfect. My posts may make it look like I always get it right, but sometimes I make huge mistakes. Here’s the story of one of those times.
We had one day to go on our housesit. We were dedicating our entire next day to cleanup in order to make sure the house was as clean as an operating theater. But we had one last night to kick back and relax.
I climbed into bed, and then checked my host’s messages to see their flight information. Then I looked at the date of their flight. And the current date on my phone.
They were the same.
I looked again. Surely I was wrong! Nope. We didn’t have 26 hours until our hosts came home. We had two.
“Mike, I’ve made a huge mistake!” I said as I jumped out of bed.
To Mike’s credit, he didn’t strangle me. Maybe he wanted to wait until after I’d helped with the cleaning. We quickly threw all our belongings into our suitcases, and cleaned the house from top to bottom at a dead run. To anyone who says cleaning isn’t cardio, I say: it is if you do it fast enough.
The poor cat cowered under the bed as we ran through the house, packing our own belongings, scrubbing every counter and floor, and thoroughly cleaning the fridge. He didn’t pop out until I made the bed with fresh sheets, which he promptly crawled under.
As I was putting the vacuum cleaner back in its place and Mike was wiping the last counter, we heard the keys in the door. Our hosts walked in, a bit dazed after 26 hours in transit. “Wow, the house looks good!” one said. “It’s even cleaner than when we left!”
We saved the day. Mike didn’t kill me, no matter how much I deserved it. And we learned that we need both of us to keep track of travel plans from now on, so we never find ourselves in this situation again.