NATCHITA

Last month, I found myself at a Dollar General in the middle of a ghost town completely disoriented. I was traveling to structure and expand my friend’s cleaning business to help her make more money and to teach myself general operations in the process. But unfortunately, it ended up not working out and we decided ultimately to not combine forces professionally. 

I was terminated from my position as a government contractor at the end of last year. It took me around six months to find and land that job. And it’s not like 2026 yields more promising Indeed paralegal prospects, especially with a job market of linear diminishing returns and such a government termination ding on my employment record for alleged performance issues. Unfortunately, legal administration is the only specialized skill I’m adequately marketed for.

I re-strategized my life at that Dollar General. I now had all this fringe cleaning business knowledge without any other plan for immediate income, so I did my best to carry on as planned. I created a cleaning kit without knowing what I was doing, and then I went to pitch my services to a friend. 

My friend graciously paid me to clean his house. I spent 9 hours the next day cleaning his house as well as I could. I was completely wrecked after that project, but I was so grateful for the immediate business. Just in that clean alone, I learned *so much* about cleanliness and sanitation. His house genuinely felt like a home when I was done. I went back to my house and I immediately felt extremely dissatisfied with my level of cleanliness. Needless to say, I’ve since raised my standard of living. 

I’ve learned a lot of really big things so far just in this past month and a half of operating a cleaning business. Mainly about the direct correlation between sanitation and system optimization (amongst other business things I’ll talk about later). You really cannot have an optimized system if it’s not sanitized. Also— did you know that you can develop a sense for sanitation? If you read my first post, you know that I recently developed the sense of tonal recognition from playing the violin. This sanitation awakening is very similar.  I know just by touching something if it’s soiled. South Park did a terrific job at portraying this sensation with Kyle and his ability to locate Tom Brady’s poop:

I always thought I was clean. But I realize didn’t even know what clean meant. I used to only wipe my phone a few a times a month. And sometimes I would let a whole month pass before washing my sheets. I now absolutely MUST fully wash my phone every other day and my sheets once a week. If I do not, these things feel completely unusable to me.

The biggest ‘Aha!’ moment I’ve had in all this is the realization that home sanitation is mostly a mechanical system. Most cleaning products are a scam (and they disrupt your hormone cycle as a bonus). For the record, I am not saying you should never use some of these products. Bio-hazardous environments sometimes do need tough chemical solutions to restore the area back to safety. But you should hardly need to use them outside of restoration. If you maintain your home properly, it should not really ever even need bleach. I mostly just stick to hot water, vinegar, and a gentle dish soap. 

Here’s another thing about germs.. it takes time for germs build up to gain enough economic power to shift the general shape of the ecosystem. They’re simply an element the system needs to control. If you live in a perpetual state of manually removing grime, then grime simply doesn’t build up for very long to have a lasting impact on the ecosystem. Have you ever been in the home of an extremely clean person? Laundry is being done everyday, nothing stays in the sink for very long, their home smells like fresh linen, you drop a chip on the floor and think ‘meh’.  IF YOUR HOUSE DOES NOT *FEEL* STEREOTYPICALLY CLEAN LIKE THIS, THEN IT’S NOT CLEAN ENOUGH. 

Germs are not this mysterious invisible element, you can see and feel them because they have an inclination to come together to physically manifest (like everything else in existence!). I can’t stress enough; homes are as sanitary as they look. Germs are not very scary under the threat of a strong sanitation system. But they genuinely are horrible for you when they dominate the eco-market. They will kill you. They lower your bandwidth. Ideas can’t come in and out because you are literally hardening (pro tip: if you don’t engage in regular bodily lymphatic drainage, cancer is mechanically inevitable). Our bodily systems tragically are a mirror of the world around us. 

What is the biggest threat to sanitation, you may be wondering? CLUTTER. Chronic clutter makes it so you can’t quickly rearrange things to quickly maintain corners and small crevices. Germs absolutely thrive in this environment. And needless to say, your ability to operate, live well, and think takes a big hit. 

Maintaining this cleaning system is entirely doable. Truly, the hardest part is creating a functional system to support it.

Hey, if you ever need any help, you know who to call! 😀