Magic Erasers

My day job is managing an apartment complex with my husband. Part of our job is getting recently vacated units ready to re-rent. In the business this is called “turning”. It’s not our favorite thing. And it doesn’t seem to matter how many times we’ve successfully done a turn there are some that still put me into panic mode. I usually turn to my husband after opening the door and ask, “Can we just throw a match in and run?”


There was the one that smelled so bad we had to leave the windows open for a week before we could get in to begin work. The neighbors all complained about the open windows!

We had one that took me one and one half hours just to clean the toilet, the wall behind the toilet and the floor around it! It was the first time I had to use a pumice stone on the OUTSIDE of a toilet.

A dog kept in the bathroom all day everyday had tried to eat his way out through the door, door jam, wall and floor.

One unit had holes in every single wall. Not picture hanging holes, more like “I hate the world” punching and kicking holes. Are you getting the picture? While I stand there on the verge of tears complaining, my husband brings in his tools and my supplies. We begin.

For the first few days we are miserable as we go about the process of “mucking out”. (That’s farm talk for cleaning out the stalls.) We are positive that we can NEVER get this place back to even a livable state. We might as well forget about beautiful.

But something happens around the halfway point. We stop being miserable because each day when we open the door it smells and looks better. Hope is restored. The image of the old beat up smelly unit is replaced by a bright pleasant newer looking home. It never fails to amaze me what changes can be brought about with paint, cleanser and a Magic Eraser.

It occurs to me that we all might know a person like that. Someone that giving up on seems like the only possible solution, someone who looks like they can never be “turned”.

And yet, just like the apartment, what could we accomplish if we found the right paint, cleanser and Magic Eraser to make the old new again in that person’s life? I’m willing to bet that the turn could be completed. I’m also pretty sure that giving up is the one solution we should never contemplate.

That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?