I have recounted how I spent my first night in my new house sleeping on a beach towel, and that was not the only time this has happened. There were plenty more adventures in moving to be had, though.
I have two bookcases that are extremely important in facilitating my germ phobia. (Yes, they are enablers.) The upper three shelves of each bookcase are where I keep most of my personal items that fall into my clean or super-clean categories. Sometimes they are stuffed with objects until they hold no more and I have to reorganize and find other homes for some of them. The two lower shelves on each case hold dirty objects, e.g., books that have fallen on the floor and were impossible to clean but that I did not wish to throw away. It is imperative that I keep the upper shelves clean as they allow me to function in a somewhat normal manner. Yet the cases are too heavy for me to carry, so other people were going to have to move them for me. The upper shelves had to be protected.
Enter plastic wrap. Not any plastic wrap will do; the heavy duty kind must be used. It is really quite versatile. I have written how I use it as a protector for my arms when I need more coverage than gloves provide. Turns out it can be used to protect bookshelves also. I came up with this during my 2008 move.
After carefully placing my super-clean items inside a pillowcase, and the other objects in various bags, I dragged the bookcases out from the wall. The cases are about thirty years old, and one of them is unstable; when I pull it away from the wall it wants to fall over. So, I pulled the wobbly bookcase over to my mattress and propped it up. Then I started unrolling the plastic wrap. Of course, the plastic only sticks to itself, so I had to try holding it in one spot while traveling around the case as far as possible with my arm outstretched. It fell a couple of times before I could go all the way around, naturally, as I had movers waiting on me.
Then the fun really started. I had to step up on the mattress to go around the back of the bookcase, then step down to go around the front. I made nine or ten rotations for each upper shelf. What I did not realize was that every time stepped on the mattress the bookcase was slipping a little, and then suddenly it slid down. It didn’t quite make it to the floor; the top was still propped up at the end of the mattress. That was a good thing because I am not especially strong, and I don’t know if I could have gotten it off the floor by myself. As it was, I was willing to fight to pull that thing back upright alone and keep it clean. I had to struggle, but I managed to do it. This was not an easy feat with so little sleep. Then I had to start the rotations again. I literally made myself dizzy I was going around the cases so fast, but it was worth it as the plastic is surprisingly strong at that thickness and the shelves were safe.
I think I will look into buying a home; I don’t feel like doing this again anytime soon.
