I'm BAAAACCCCK!! I've been on an extended road trip speaking six times in the last two weeks, and home for only a day in between, so it's nice to finally sit back and enjoy myself!
Of course, I do have a book signing tonight, but it's local, and I'll tell you all about that at lunch when I blog then.
I'm off to do some grocery shopping, since we have nothing in the fridge and the girls, in their selfishness, have decided they actually want to eat breakfast and lunch. Honestly.
They came with me for the last three days on the road, and saw me speak, which was fun because normally I'm all by myself. I think they enjoyed it, too.
One of the things we love while traveling, though, is that we have a television. We don't have one at home, so it's a big treat.
Yesterday morning, then, the three of us sat down and watched Clean House. Basically perfectly normal families debase themselves on television by letting people see how they actually live.
These shows make me feel great about myself. Normally I'm not that proud of my house, because I've been living in our new one for almost a year and I still don't have the proper artwork on the living room walls, and we still haven't bought drapes for the dining room. But in all honesty, if people are coming over, we can get the place spic and span in under 45 minutes quite easily. The key is clutter. Our place just isn't that cluttered. I try to deal with mess when it appears, so the only problem is vacuuming and putting a few things away.
I'm always amazed by people with cleaning ladies, because I don't think cleaning takes that long. It's putting away all the crap that's in your house that takes a long time. I had a cleaning service for a year a few years ago, and it was more trouble than it was worth. It took me so long tidying for the cleaning service that it wasn't relaxing at all. And the cleaning part is a breeze. I like washing down counters and making everything smell nice. What I don't like is sorting all the papers and figuring out where all the old trophies and cards go.
So our house is quite manageable, on the whole, and the girls are now experts and doing the cleaning part. I've trained them well! :)
But these families on these shows have stuff everywhere. You can't sit on the couch because of junk. You can't sleep in the bed because of junk. There is junk on every surface of the home. On the show, they help the people weed through the junk, sell a ton at a yard sale, and then redecorate their home so it feels great, and hope that the people keep it up.
I can't help but wonder, though, why do people have all that junk? Are we really that addicted to shopping? Maybe that's why the credit card bills are out of control; we are literally stuffing our homes with stuff we don't need. If we all just aimed to be minimalists, where cleaning is much easier, I bet we'd find our credit card bills go down, too.
Isn't it sad that one of the biggest problems in North America isn't too little, it's too much? We eat too much food. We have too much technology so we don't exercise. We buy too much so we go into debt and can't keep our homes clean. Imagine a society where the problem is too much, not too little. I don't think our ancestors could ever have dreamed that it would one day come to this!
I love to organize and clean...but not file...I know that is organizing but still..I am so far from a pack rat it isn't funny, but we still have clutter!!
I wish I could say my home was clutter free. It is a long term goal that I am working on. I do not like to organize and cleaning is a chore when there is stuff all over that doesn't need to be there. One of my problems is that I am not a filer but a piler. my sister is a professional organizer and told me recently that there are now products for filing that would fit my style better than the standard filing cabinet but I have to actually go through and get rid of what I no longer need first. Little by little I am working at it and trying to teach my girls better habits from the start.
Ha Ha, I don't know where I fit in to any of this! I don't like any of it! We're just all too bizzy, including myself. I've tried cleaning ladies and then you have to clean and pick up before they come. Nope, doesn't work. Fun post!
About Me: I'm a Christian author of a bunch of books, and a frequent speaker to women's groups and marriage conferences. Best of all, I love homeschooling my daughters, Rebecca and Katie. And I love to knit. Preferably simultaneously.
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LOL, I'm the complete opposite to you. I love to organize and sort papers but hate to clean :)