Once, there were two carpets. They were the same color, the same make and pattern, they even were of age, being manufactured at the same company. And they both arrived together in one truck, both nicely rolled up in neat, big spools, ready to unfurl and cover their particular stretch of floor at the nice facility at which they were destined to live out their lives.
When the men who delivered them were about to leave, they issued one warning to the man in charge building. “Keep these babies clean”, they told him, and he nodded in agreement. “And do it regularly. Plan for it. It will extend their life cycle and they will serve you well for many a year to come.” The man in charge nodded again. “But be sure to do it the right way. There are wise people who know how to handle carpets, since they have been doing it all their lives. You should call them up soon”.
The man in charge did not nod. Those carpets were expected to last a long time, he agreed, as they should, since they have been quite expensive to begin with. No need to call up the experts right away and spend more money on them so quickly, he was sure.
After all, both carpets were strong and durable and beautiful, chosen from many other carpets, from all sorts of manufacturers all over the land, as the perfect choice for the busy building – it could have been a bank, an office building or a hotel, the carpets did not know and did not care. They were there to do two things: to make the floors more comfortable for walking upon and to make the building look nice, cozy and welcoming.
And this they did well enough. The building manager, the man tasked with caring for the carpets, was very pleased with how they made people’s footsteps silent and how well they matched the intricate designs on the supporting columns and the color of the interior walls.
So the carpets carried on doing what they do best for a long time, just lying there and looking pretty, but well aware that they provide a valuable service and a useful asset to the building as well as to the man in charge of the building. The many people working there and the throngs of visitors coming and going were also happy to have such nice carpets at their feet. And the man in charge was happy, since the carpets were looking good and strong. No need to call up the experts yet, he thought.
Soon, however, the first signs of all those feet trampling around began to show on both carpets. No wonder, since both were laid down in places where the majority of people in this particular building were milling around every day, coming, going, trotting, walking, talking, spilling their coffee and dropping their ice cream – one at the lobby, the other at the main conference room.
This was not really a problem, the man in charge of the building had planned for that. He had many people under his command, all tasked with keeping the appearance and cleanliness of the building in top condition. He was a smart man and he knew that carpets are there to be walked on – and a thing is walked on, it is bound to get soiled.
His plan was simple: his cleaning crew would vacuum, dust and sometimes rub and wash the carpets (providing that they had stains on them as opposed to dust, dirt and all that regular stuff that likes to set up deep in-between the carpet strands). No need to call up the experts at all, he was certain.
The plan worked… for several months. See, the building was at a busy street, and winter had come, so there were more people indoors generally, and more dirt in particular, since winter rains, sleet and snow like nothing more than to get stuck on someone’s shoe and then be brought inside, to finally rest on a nice, soft carpet. The workers who were tasked with cleaning started to complain. “This is a job better left to professionals. They have better equipment. They have powerful cleaning agents. They know exactly what to do!” they mumbled and grumbled.
Soon, despite all their best efforts, the colors on both carpets began to take a darker shade. The stains were getting so frequent that they could not clean them fast enough. It became clear to the man in charge that something drastic needed to be done or both beautiful carpets would soon be ruined and ready for replacement, after merely a fraction of their expected life.
Now, he had no choice but to call in the professionals.
But, there was just one problem. The man in charge had sincerely believed that people on his payroll would be able to fight away all the dirt and keep his carpets clean, so he did not put aside any money for outside help. He had some emergency cleaning funds, but not really enough to do the thing that, deep down in his heart, he knew was the only right solution (since he was a smart man): to make a deal with the professionals to come at regular intervals to his magnificent building (well, it was not really his since he was not the owner, but he came to consider it his own after so many years dedicated to keeping it orderly and pleasing in appearance) and do their cleaning magic.
For the first time in a long while, the man in charge was not sure what to do.
He calculated, he budgeted and estimated, he asked for quotes and negotiated with expert carpet cleaners, but he could not come up with enough money to pay for regular carpet cleaning. So he had to make a hard choice…
He chose one of the two carpets – the one in the lobby, since more visitors were bound to walk there and look at it – and made a deal with the professionals to clean it regularly. He was hoping that his personnel could now double down on the other carpet, the one in the conference room. He was betting that everybody who told him this had to be done were somehow wrong, that professional care would turn out to be not that much different from what his cleaning crew could provide and that both carpets would continue looking equally good.
Needless to say, after just a couple of cycles of regular professional cleaning, the difference was becoming stark. The poor carpet in the conference hall could not keep up, despite all the effort they were putting into it. The things they could do to clean it simply did not match the resources and knowledge the professionals had.
So, one day they had to take it away and replace it with a new carpet.
At least, the carpet in the lobby was saved. And the man in charge of the building learned a valuable lesson for which he was thankful – he would not make the same mistake with the shiny, new carpet he had ordered for the conference room.
He could not afford to.
