Levels of Mess

I'm joining in on a blog hop with The Gnome's Mom to share a little bit about the life I lead here. I know I do that quite a bit anyway, as I'm not really doing many giveaways, but I thought it would be a fun thing to do! The Gnome's Mom is one of my favorite blogs to read and follow on a regular basis as well. If you're a blogger and would like to link up, feel free! And add us on Twitter with the hashtag #MMM


One of my best friends and I were talking on the phone a few weeks back (yes, some of us still use telephones occasionally), and started on the conversation of housekeeping. "Blondie" (as I will refer to her) has an extremely OCD-clean mother. To the point that if she's babysitting and Blondie has ANY dishes in her sink, Grandma will complain that Blondie "Never washes dishes." No lie. Blondie tells me one day that her mother was complaining that her house was "filthy." I had been there earlier that day and, to me, it was "a little messy" but to be expected when you have a 4- and nearly-2-year-old running around everywhere. So, this led to our discussion of levels of mess.

Blondie, although she'd never actually tell me this, thinks my house is generally a mess. I almost always have piles of papers or craft projects lying around. Sometimes I just have general "stuff" around that I can't find a place to store immediately and it gets pushed into a corner or hidden in a closet. She laughs at me when I "clean" for her family to come hang out with us because I will have seating and a clean kitchen and bathroom, but I will still maintain my piles of books on top of the bookshelves with last week's mail on top of those! LOL. She says that my level of mess acceptance is much higher than hers! And her level is much higher than her mother's!

How do we get this way? Are we just innately born with a "mess level" that is acceptable to each of us? Or are we trained by our parents/caregivers to accept their level of mess and adopt it as our own?

I will be the first to admit that I am a terrible housekeeper! Part of that is due to lack of space in my 2-bedroom home for our growing family and our ever-increasing amount of stuff. Another part is that I was never asked to clean (or cook, or do laundry) while growing up. I grew up with my great-grandmother and always knew that if I waited long enough, she'd end up doing it. If I wait long enough now, hubby MAY do it just because he can't stand it anymore, but most likely I'll have to do it anyway and end up stressing myself out endlessly because I waited too damn long in the first place! As I get older, I'm trying to be better. I try to do my dishes as I get enough for a load in the dishwasher. I try to put my clothes (and hubby's) in the hampers - sorted by warm/cold/delicate - as they get dirty and do loads during hubby's off days so he can help watch Fuss. The folding usually doesn't get accomplished for all the clothes because I run out of storage space and get angry. I'm working with Fuss right now to get her to put away her toys each night before bed. She can play with anything and everything as long as it goes back in the box at the end of the day. Some days this works, some days it doesn't. Vacuuming doesn't happen as frequently as I'd like. I'm working on that too.

Old habits certainly die hard. Feeling crappy for ANY reason definitely doesn't help. I'm still behind on my cleaning and laundry from being sick 2 weeks ago! It seems that the second you stop, it builds so fast that it's nearly impossible to catch up! Here's to hoping we can all stay illness free for a few months and get everything spick-and-span for the spring/summer! I want to have the type of house that Blondie lives in. :) I wish I had that level of mess in my home!