White House moving won’t be traditional

Most of us hate the chore of moving out of a residence or office headquarters.

But that’s what the Trump administration is scheduled to do around Jan. 20.

The delicate and highly choreographed event of packing up and moving out and unpacking and moving in, done by dozens of prepped and trained staff and movers is a part of the every-fouryears tradition.

Before the Bidens move in, the White House will first undergo a COVID-19 cleansing, top to bottom, from East Wing to West Wing.

This includes $117,000 for what one government order refers to as “2021 Inaugural Cleaning,” bid out to Didlake, a Virginia-based business that employs people with disabilities for jobs, including janitorial and housekeeping services.

That’s separate from a $44,000 order for carpet cleaning and the $115,000 purchase agreement for “2021 Presidential Inauguration and Transition Carpet Replacement and Installation to correct the current floor condition of selected interior floors for various offices,” within the East Wing, West Wing and Executive Office Building.

In traditional administration-swaps, the bulk of the cleaning, while thorough, is done predominantly by White House staff — housekeepers, butlers, ushers — and upkeep such as electrical fixes and small maintenance. There are typically 90 to 100 in roles that range from pastry cooks to florists to plumbers.

However, this time around, the incoming Biden administration wanted to ensure that 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., which has been a hotspot of at least three COVID-19 breakouts, gets the sort of scrub-down a pandemic deserves, CNN reporters explained.

President Donald Trump tweeted that he will not attend President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. The Trumps are scheduled to leave Washington the day prior, on Jan. 19.

Biden is planning to spend the night before the inauguration in a Washington hotel and will move to the White House after the thorough cleaning.

Other expenses include more than $29,000 to clean the curtains in the East Wing, West Wing and Eisenhower Executive Office Building and $53,000 for wall coverings.

Typically, the window of time on Inauguration Day is not enough for updating paint and wallpaper around White House.

A contract for $37,975 was awarded to an Annapolis, Md., company for the removal of trash and recycling — suggesting a cartoon idea for newspapers.