Mess...

Our house is a mess right now.

This isn't an unusual occurrence.

I am, at best, an erratic housekeeper. As I've mentioned in previous posts this is mostly because when I get done with an 8, 10 or 12 hour work day I just don't have the energy to do anything else. And on the weekends I feel the need to try to rest up as much as possible to prep for the next insane hectic work week.

Consequently...mess.

It drives me crazy, but usually when it gets too out of control...or we have company coming...we take a day to get our house in shape. Luckily we have a fairly small house so most big cleaning can get done in a day or so.

Not so much for a friend of mine who is out west dealing with her mom's house. Her mom is one of those people that would be classified as a "hoarder."

This is apparently the third time in two dozen years that my friend and her siblings have had to shovel out their mom's home. It's so very sad and frustrating for my friend and her family. They've been cleaning and shoveling out stuff for almost two weeks straight and my friend reports that there is still "sooooo much more to do" before an upcoming visit from the social workers who will determine if the home is habitable and if my friend's mom can return to live there independently (with regular visits from the social worker.)

It's amazing to me that anyone could live in a home full up (and apparently my friend's mom's house was literally FULL) with that kind of chaos.

HOW can you live like that? How can you not do anything about that?

But then I look at my own house...at the kitchen table that is currently covered in various piles of mail, magazines, a slow cooker and assorted and sundry "stuff" and I realize that someone who is a very tidy housekeeper might very well look with horror at my untidy kitchen table while thinking, "HOW can you live like that? How can you not do anything about that?"

Yup.

The truth is that I much prefer my house to be clean and tidy. I don't have the hoarder's need for acquisition. And I DO actually see the mess. I do also share one thing with someone who is a hoarder...I often feel overwhelmed by our stuff.

Part of me has this fantasy that once I'm working part-time and the Schmoopie is here that I will become one of those really tidy people. That I'll have the time and energy to straighten and clean with regularity. That I won't be freaked out when people drop by unexpectedly. That my house will always be spic-n-span clean.

Then I remember my 14-month old niece The Wookie....and her propensity for emptying any and all containers, bags and drawers onto the floor. It takes her just a few minutes to turn a neat and tidy room (say, for example, my sister-in-law's living room) into a Zone of Total Chaos.

Is it just possible that our little Schmoopie will be a neat and tidy little kid who has no interest in making chaos?

Yeah...right...

Fantasy.

And so there will be different mess in our house with the arrival of the Little One...kid mess.

Ah well.

Maybe someday my house will be clean.

Perhaps I'll at least clean off the kitchen table this weekend...

Now where the heck does that slow cooker go?