There is an ugly hot water heater that sits in the corner of my kitchen.  You can’t move it.  It’s giant and I can’t rearrange it to find a spot in another corner or hidden from view.  It has to be there.

Five years – maybe six – we’ve lived here.

In those years I have draped ten or more different colored coverings over it during various seasons — yellow checked, gingham, plaid. Whatever.

The table cloths get dirty.  They look gross.  I try to clean them.  But they always look weird.  Like they are covering up something shameful and they seem out of place.

Last week I took the fabric off.

(I have no idea what took me so long.)

I left the white hot water heater bare and highly visible. Stark enamel white next to my gorgeous wood counter tops. (Still singing the praises of those beauties!)

And – guess what?

The white enamel is so easy to clean.

It looks crisp and tidy.

You can’t hide it.

It’s a white hot water heater in the corner of my kitchen.

But, it looks a billion times better actually – just owning itself for what it is.  No hiding, no mystery, no trying to be what it isn’t.

It isn’t pretty, it’s purely functional.

And we’re all glad for the job that it does.  For that miracle of hot tap water at the mere lift of a handle.

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