I think a Lamborghini Gallardo is a frivolous waste of money that could have been better spent, say, a few hundred people in a third world nation for a year. On the other hand, being of an engineery type of mind, I can also see why people love them. And I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit practicing the same damn Bach partita on the violin… anyway. I’m just saying, sometimes activities like this can carry their own sort of Zen purity.

If he loves that job, and is good at it, more power to him!

You say you have “better things to do with your time”, but then say that you have to spend it doing your JOB, which is teaching. Pray tell how that is somehow a “better thing to do” than this gentleman doing HIS JOB, which is extreme detailing of high end automobiles. He obviously takes great pride in his job and enjoys doing it; and based on his clientele, he probably makes substantially more money doing it than many of us do at our white collar jobs.

I think part of this is audience related. This post seems to be quite different that the usual here on the Unclutterer. Themes are often how to simplify, use what you need, streamline cleaning and organizing processes. Though the cleaning and taking care of things are in line with the usual themes that people seem to be here for; the blowing of huge amounts of time and money for something as trivial as getting something 8 times cleaner than anyone would notice just seems excessive and out of line with the themes that are usually discussed here. I can think of several other audiences that would find this a wonderful use of time and resources.

And for me Adrian captured something important quite well:

“…deal with the reality that your car, like you, isn’t immortal.”

As a practitioner of psychotherapy, I do think we have a tendency on a less-than-conscious level to believe that if we take painstakingly good enough care of our things and ourselves we can avoid the inevitable big ending. “When I own a precision machine like this, this meticulously cared for, yearned for by all those below me, how could someone like me be a mere mortal?”

Getting a little deep for a post on car detailing, but I really do think that dynamic is at play here…along with the more obvious huge number status points one gets for having the time and money to blow on activities like this. “You couldn’t spend this much time and money on your entire home. Look at what I do, without a second thought, for one of my six collectable cars.”

That’s my take anyway.

If it weren’t for the obvious care this guy shows in doing this work, and the fact that I, a person who hasn’t always paid this kind of cleaning attention to every nook and cranny of her house, am starting to pay attention more, I too would probably be thinking, “What a waste of time and energy!”

As it is, though, add me to the list of those wanting a housecleaner clone of that guy.

the state of my blue, peeling, scratched up, stained 12 year old car would send this man into multiple m.i.’s. the car isn’t woth $800, I’m not paying for anyone to clean it up.