My mom watches Meg every Monday and Wednesday. She comes to our house to pick her up. (I don't know how I got so lucky!) When I first went back to work, I attempted to make our house company-is-coming clean every time she came over. And if it wasn't quite up to that level (it usually wasn't), it was at least 'a little cluttered, but not too bad.' It was exhausting. Over the months, my standard slipped further and further to the point I now rarely even straighten up before she comes. She gets to see our full mess. Our house is usually very cluttered with papers, toys, and even dishes. The papers we "need" but don't know what to do with, the toys I consider not worth picking up since Meg will just haul them out again, and the dishes...well, we can get lazy sometimes (though the dirty dishes are always in the kitchen, not the living room).
About 6:00 tonight Meg, Thomas, and I were sitting in the living room. Thomas and I had been sitting slothlike on the couch attached to our iPod touch (him) and HTC Incredible (me) for a few hours. Meanwhile, Meg had been creating the maximum mess. She tore up today's paper. She brought in boatloads of toys from her room. She scattered puffs on the floor. Earlier in the day, she'd spilled coffee (mine), which Thomas had very nicely cleaned up (since I was in the middle of washing bottles). The floor was still wet and a little discolored. Our beloved long-hair cat leaves so much dang hair on the living room floor it looks like I've vaccuumed up a whole cat every time I clean.
In short, our living room was a major disaster. MAJOR. I did think, wow, I can't live like this, but that wasn't enough motivation to do anything about it. But the fact that my mom will be coming tomorrow morning to pick Meg up did motivate me to put down my phone and clean the whole room. It had reached a new low and I just didn't want my mom to see it. I do have some standards! Took an hour and a half. Our living room looks fantastic. I just feel so much better when mom comes over and our house actually looks decent.
Do all visitors to your house rate a company-is-coming cleaning session? Or are there any relatives or friends who are close enough that they're allowed to see it like it is?
My mom and in-laws usually get either a cursory de-clutter or nothing at all (all of them are used to mess - my MIL and SIL especially), but I try to pick up when my dad is coming over since he is picky about cleanliness. (though he rarely helps himself, even in his own home and his personal office is a DISASTER) Unfortunately, he usually comes over without calling, so I don't have much time to do anything.
ReplyDeleteI think my house is always a little cluttered, especially lately since we are undergoing construction and everything is shoved into our great room (the main common living space in the house) so there is only so much I can do. But I'm getting better about keeping on top of it lately!