We all make mistakes. Some are more obvious than others. The problem is this: we aren't the only ones to notice the obvious ones. Others notice them, too. That happened to me this week when my neighbor confronted me about my "stairwell sin".

The evidence was in plain sight, so there was no way I could deny it – there wasn't even any "wiggle room"! There it was in the corner of the stairwell: a big dust curl!

I live in an apartment building with six tenants, two per floor – one each on the left and right sides of the stairwell. On each floor, the tenants alternate each week in cleaning their portion of the stairs, and once every six weeks it is your turn to clean the bottom of the stairwell and the basement hallways.

Keeping track of the bi-weekly chore isn't too difficult. You just ask yourself: Did I do it last week? If not, it's your turn.

For the once-in-six-weeks jobs (we also alternate cutting the grass in the tenant house yard in the summer) we have a small plastic sign that says either "Clean the basement floor" or "Cut the grass". Direct and simple.

Well, I got the "Clean the basement floor" sign a month ago, but I was gone on a trip, so the basement floor – including the bottom portion of the stairwell – looked kind of nasty by the time my neighbor asked me if I had the sign.

Well, yes, actually I do have it, but I was not at home, I explained. Sure. Oh well, get out the vacuum cleaner and do it quickly before someone stumbles over a dust curl and you wind up getting sued!

Sound somewhat regulated? For a lot of foreigners it seems that way. Some tenants even have it written into their rental contract that they have to clean their portion of the stairwell at specified intervals.

Some other time I'll write about the trash pick-up system in this country.