It was July 2020. We were 4 months into our diligent, safer-at-home practices when it happened. Our air conditioner broke. In Florida. In summer! It was almost comical. We’d been very careful—not eating out, not going out, soaking produce, letting delivered packages sit for days on end downstairs (it became more superstition than anything) and disinfecting all the delivered groceries, twice-- but now, we’d have to break the barrier. We’d have to let someone, from out there, in here! It would be a first, as we hadn’t ventured out since March 8th! But I was ready.
I wasn’t fearful, I was just being careful, I told myself, as I placed the call to request a repair man. But when he showed up later that day, peering at me through the glass window on the door, without a mask, I almost freaked out. But I did ask him if he had one. He pulled a crumpled paper mask from out of his shirt pocket and reluctantly put it on before entering our home. Thankfully, he had paper booties for his shoes, but pretty much touched everything with his bare hands on his way to and from the faulty unit which was located on the third floor, and at one point, even asked to use our bathroom!
When everything was back in working order and I walked him out. I closed the door behind me and immediately jumped on the internet and began researching smarter, safer, pet, and kid friendly solutions for keeping my house clean during a pandemic. With the help of Home Depot, a trusted source to alleviate home safety concerns, here’s what I came up with:
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