The Importance of Being Neat (or not)

I recently read an article in the New York Times about a woman who inherited her mother’s germaphobia. The pandemic amplified her phobia, and she became obsessed with the variety of disinfectants available and how to use and not use them.

Bleach shouldn’t be mixed with anything except water. This lesson I learned the hard way when I tried to clean an ancient and yellowed bathtub years ago. I wanted it clean, so I mixed bleach, ammonia, and a little TSP in a bucket. I nearly asphyxiated myself.

The woman described in the article confessed that her newfound germaphobia had not translated into ke...