Glitter is on my mind today. It’s also on the floor, clothes, Christmas ornaments… in fact it’s taking over the planet. Seriously. The stuff is everywhere and each day more and more of it is pumped into decorations, tee-shirts, and greeting cards. It’s all over the Christmas village Heather setup the other day and now I see shiny sparkles on the floor.
Normally I don’t worry much about small specs on the floor (unless they’re moving, things moving by themselves on the floor get my attention) — I can ignore dirt as well as any man, but in my house I’m in charge of vacuuming the floors. Two, three times a month I run the vacuum over most of the floors in our home. I don’t move furniture and sometimes skip the guest room if we haven’t had guests, but otherwise, I turn my well trained eye to the task of getting all the specs of dirt off the floor.
When I’m not vacuuming, I do start building a mental map of where there is non-moving dirt I need to vacuum up. Of course, there are times when what I think is a bit of dirt is really a stain or part of the pattern on the carpet so I do check those areas slightly more carefully. I know that there is a black dot by the back door that is not dirt, but rather a small chip in the kitchen title that has resisted all my attempts to vacuum it up.
Just to clarify here — moving dirt is an indication of bugs (ants, spiders, fleas). Knowing Heather’s reaction to seeing something like that, I’ve trained myself to react to those right away. I don’t need that level of screaming in my life.
So why does glitter on the floor bother me? You can’t just vacuum it up. Oh sure, the vacuum sucks into its dirt chamber but then go empty that into the trash and you’ll just see glitter bits flying off into the wind and on to your shirt, pants and shoes. Then as surely as God created spiders for the cats to chase, glitter will get tracked right back onto my mostly clean floors.
Here’s a few facts about glitter: It’s mostly plastic with some aluminum and a mix of toxic chemicals to make it sparkly. It doesn’t biodegrade and likely will outlast humanity on this planet. Some 20 million pounds of the stuff is manufactured every year (well that is one source, another source said 100 million pounds, but either way, its a lot). Glitter has been made for centuries, but it wasn’t until sometime around the 1930s that we started making out of plastic. It won’t be that much longer and the dirt in our yards will have a detectable amount of glitter in it (if we haven’t already gotten there that is).
Here’s a scary thing I learned, forensic scientists have cataloged somewhere around 1,000 different kinds of glitter. They can now identify that a criminal has been in my kitchen by comparing the kinds of glitter on their shoes to the kind of glitter on my floor. Since glitter is virtually impossible to get rid of I expect that banks will soon stop putting dye packs in the bags of cash they give to robbers and will start putting glitter bombs in there instead.
Well the only good news is that I guess I could stop referring to glitter on my floor as trash, but rather as part of my home security system.
Andrew's View of the Week 
I taught preschool for many years. I have many glitter stories myself. Ha! But you have provided a wealth of facts that are rather astounding! I would not have thought glitter would be so interesting!
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I bet you do have a lot of stories from that time.
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Glitter as home security….that’s a sparkling idea.
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🙂 Love it!
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sorry to comment here, but I found this video and immediately thought of you. I can’t imagine the precision of his work . . . Just like you and marquetry.
https://sucede.es/post/760786380673728512/recopilación-de-juntas-de-madera-by-odform
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That’s amazing.
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I am now glad I have always avoided glitter.
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I try to avoid glitter myself, but this time of year people like to send greeting cards with glitter.
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Glitter is a very clever idea for bank robbers Andrew 🙂
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I think banks need to get glitter deployed soon in all their banks.
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I saw a program once about a guy who set unique traps for porch pirates. As I recall, one was a giant glitter bomb that went off when the package was opened in the pirate’s car.
Yes, the evil stuff “likely will outlast humanity.”
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I think that guy is on to something there.
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It’s impossible to understand the weight of 20 million pounds of glitter (let alone 100). The stuff just seems to be weightless (as in your example of trying to put it into the trash). I think you’ve explained why my own efforts to vacuum the floor glide harmlessly over the same bits of glitter here and there. My lazy brain assumed those bits were somehow “baked into” the hardwood. Never thought to reach down and see if they actually move. As for the vacuuming itself, the timing in this house is in direct proportion to the amount of dog hair generated by our Saint Bernard (which is a lot!)
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I have trouble picturing just a pound of the stuff, 20 million is beyond comprehension. I have three cats and often their fur is my reason to get the vacuum out.
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Yikes!
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exactly!
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Don’t worry, the glittery remnants of Christmas should be gone by June or July 😊
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I hope, but it might take longer 😉
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glitter is the gift that keeps on giving.
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It is.
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Good day, Andrew. 🙂 I use glitter in my artwork for accents on occasion, but 99% of the time, it is glitter paint, with a clear base and no wild particles to wreak havoc on my house or life. I am taking a class online this month and in it, as a final touch they use the sprinkle on type of very fine glitter. Of course, I have a small bottle, but it is probably 20 years old because as I said – I rarely use it in that form. I thought, “What the heck?”, and tried it on the project…
It looked beautiful, but as you said, it has a mind of its own and there are lingering reminders of its existance still – three days later andd after several wipings/vacuumings. Mind you, I only used it on a small ornament and was very careful. Add to that I couldn’t have sprinkled more than a quarter teaspoon (the bottle is very small and still nearly full!) I think it reproduces on its own like an army of aliens to invade our homes and workspaces and becomes a permanent part of our domestic landscape.
It is difficult not to this that the stuff is evil. (And this is coming from an artist and a girl who loves a bit of sparkle!)
You will probably finish cleaning the last (visible) speck just in time for your turkey dinner next Thanksgiving. Soon after, you can start the cycle all over again when decorating for next year.
Sparkle on, my friend. Sparkle on!
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My wife has some glues that have glitter in them that she uses for Christmas stockings. That stuff seems to stay put, but I think some folks don’t do enough to keep the glitter where it is ment to be. Sadly, glitter is just a fact of life.
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