The dangerous word … just . . .
It’s a tiny word. Four letters. Harmless enough on its own.
But in the decorating world, “just” is like the sound of creaking floorboards in a horror film – you know something bad is about to happen.
“While You’re Here…”
Picture the scene.
The job’s nearly done. The walls are painted, the brushes are washed out, the place is starting to look sharp. Then the customer wanders in with that look.
“Oh, Ads, while you’re here, can you just fill that crack / touch up that door / paint the ceiling / rebuild the Taj Mahal?”
And suddenly the job you allowed three days for turns into five, the tidy-up has to wait, and the schedule you carefully planned out is wobbling like a table with one leg too short.
Why
Just
Isn’t “Just”
Here’s the truth: there’s no such thing as “just” in this line of work.
Every “just” has a list of hidden steps attached:
Moving furniture
Prepping surfaces
Masking up
Cutting in
Coats of paint (yes, more than one!)
Drying time
Clean up
By the time you’ve done all that, it wasn’t a cheeky little add-on at all – it was a whole extra job dressed up in a four-letter word.
Free? Not Quite.
The other hidden sting in “just” is the assumption it’s free because “you’re here anyway.”
But imagine walking into a café, ordering a full English, and then saying to the chef:
“While you’re at it, could you just whip me up a Victoria sponge?”
Doesn’t quite work like that, does it?
Tradespeople run on time, materials, and skill. If you want a quality finish, you’ve got to respect the process – and the process doesn’t bend to just.
The Polite Truth
Don’t get me wrong – I’ll always try to help where I can. But here’s the thing: if you’ve got extras, let me know at the start. We can price them, plan them, and make them part of the job. Then no one’s rushing, nothing’s bodged, and everyone’s happy.
Because when you drop in a “just” at the end, it’s never just. It’s time, it’s cost, it’s effort – and sometimes it’s the difference between a neat job and a nightmare.
Final Word
So next time you feel a “just” coming on, remember:
It’s never as small as you think.
It’s not automatically free.
It’s always better planned than sprung.
Use “just” carefully. In decorating, it’s a bigger word than you realise.