So I had to sweep the ceiling yesterday. No… really. I did. If you’ll remember an odd little post from back in the day, my house is covered the with decoratively disasterous (and probably asbestos-laden) ceiling popcorn. Not only is it ugly and un-paintable, I found out it catches things. A little while ago, I noticed that we had developed a gray ring in the ceiling in our kitchen around our fan. Apparently as our fan kicked up dust while it spun, that dust would lodge in the ceiling popcorn in a very neat, even spray.
Since I knew we would be having a lot of people over for Sarah and Alan’s birthday party (more on that later), I decided it was time to finally kill that ceiling ring. So I pushed the kitchen table out of the way, stood up on a chair, and took to the ceiling with a damp paper towel.
If I would have thought it all the way through, I probably would have been able to figure out that the weakened, wet paper towel would not have stood up well to the sharp, scratchy ceiling popcorn. Now that I had ugly gray dust and shreds of white paper stuck to the ceiling, I knew it was time for a different tactic. We don’t have a duster — we always just use rags — and so I decided my best option was probably a broom.
It worked. But after the first two strokes I decided that I was none too anxious to be breathing in the lovely gray snow which was drifting all around me to the floor. I remedied the problem with a bandana, and went back to work. About halfway through the job, I realized that I must be quite the sight. Which I was.
So I am happy to say that the ceiling is now clean. And I am also happy to say that the next time something like that needs to be done — we’re getting a real duster. That’s all there is to it.
