Immaculate

There is a simple reason why my house is not immaculate:  I don't care enough.

There are a lot of reasons why people keep immaculate houses.  Perhaps they expect visitors to drop by on a moment's notice.  Perhaps they have OCD.  Isn't there some quote about cleanliness leads to godliness?  Perhaps they subscribe to the "a place for everything and everything in it's place" mantra.

My mantra is this: clean enough to be healthy, messy enough to be happy.  I do look around (often) and think - wow it would be nice for all these horizontal surfaces to be free of "piles" and the toy area to look more organized than haphazardly piled.  Sometimes I clean the kitchen for the sole purpose of making a mess in it again - a.k.a. cooking.  But then I think of the 80-20 rule and decide it's good enough.  I can spend 15 minutes "picking up" a room or an hour cleaning it - and I'm choosing the 15 minutes almost every time.  Why? - multiply an hour by 8 rooms and that's a whole day cleaning!

One flaw in my system (yes, see how I call it a "system" to give it some more legitimacy) is that it's confusing to the kids.  I say "clean up your mess" and what does that mean?  Throw it all in the toy bin in your room with the lid on it so mom can't see but then when you go to play you have to take it all back out again to find the one little shoe missing from Tinkerbell's outfit?  Or does it mean sort and organize so that all the fairies are in one bin, barbies in another, star wars separated from star wars lego?  If my house were immaculate - the end point of cleaning would be clear. 

It's true - I see clean houses and kindof want that.  It's also entirely possible for me to organize and have an immaculate house.  I believe that I am capable of it.  I just don't WANT it badly enough.  I want it vaguely from a distance like "gee that would be be nice."   I rationalize that my friends like me for my winning personality, not my immaculate house.  Also - I can always arrange to meet them in neutral locations - like Starbucks. 

I do need to hunt for a cleaning service this summer, due to my strong aversion to using anything chemical other than kitchen counter spray.  Perhaps that will elevate the house from "picked up" to "clean" ..... at least once every other week, that is.