The Idea of ‘Lived In.’
Go Away, If You Want Spotless!
Iwake up in my bed, and my clothes are strewn all over the floor. They are not just chucked anywhere, they are in three different piles. One is a wash pile, and the other two are clean piles. My laptop is pushed so far under the bed, I can barely reach it!
I have so much junk under my bed, notebooks, pens, pencils, and even a pair of socks that don’t belong there.
Yes, I even found a pair of clean knickers under there!
I head down to my kitchen which is clean but every surface is cluttered with cooking appliances and utensils. The only clear surface is where I have my kettle because I’d crack up if I couldn’t find it in the morning.
Heading into my lounge, if one didn’t understand me they’d think it was a child’s play room. It is cluttered with books, gadgets, and many other things.
It can sometimes be impossible to find a space on my couch because I often cover it with other things.
People coming to my house would think that I never clean up, but I do.
I just don’t do spotless or over-cleanliness.
I live by a theory of ‘lived in,’ a concept of which different people have different meanings.
When I was growing up as a child, my mum did clean up but she never did spotless.
My mum liked her home to be comfortable. She believed in clean, but ‘lived in.’ She wasn’t ever 100% tidy, she was comfortably tidy. Some days I would come home from school and every room in the house would be a little messy. However, if my mum had spent all day tidying up, she’d never have had a life.
When my own children were young, my home was never ‘spotless’, and some professionals often complained that I wasn’t tidy or clean enough.
Bringing up six children was really hard, I did not have time to clean and tidy all day! Besides,
being too tidy and stressing yourself out over it in front of children teaches them that being messy is wrong!
If children grow up believing that cleaning is the only way to live, then they will grow up anxious about every little mess they make.
Parents should feel free to spend more time with their children because children need them more than housework needs them.
My children are grown up today, but I still don’t do 100% tidy. I have laundry in my lounge to put away, and baskets of dirty clothes to wash, and everything is out of place,
But, I will clean it up in my own time.
We need to drop the concept of spotless because it causes people more stress than it is worth. Of course, we do need to clean and tidy our homes every now and then, in order to create a healthy home.
However, being too clean and tidy can be unhealthy; and in today’s world, do you really want to spend the rest of your life absorbed in chores?
Life is for living, so please go away if you want spotless. You won’t get it at my house!
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