The Joy of Tidy

Saturday is chores day. Of course we sweep and wash dishes and remove clutter on a daily basis, but we all work all week and come home tired, so we save most of the major stuff for the weekend. My mom says that if she were lucky and got to stay home, she would do different things every day and we wouldn't have to spend the whole day cleaning.

My mother is also a major neat-freak. She has an eagle-eye that can spot a microscopic piece of lint in the other room, and almost faints if we have one too many bottles of lotion or perfume on our bedroom dressers.

I'm am so glad I have a mom like this, though. Growing up with her has made me appreciate the calm and serenity of a clean and tidy house. I have been to some people's houses where it is obvious that people would rather leave that 3-day-old unwashed underwear on the floor (or their stairs!!) than strain their back to pick it up, and it makes me so antsy just looking at it.

Now I'm not claiming to be an angel when it comes to keeping my own room 100% tidy. I still have tissue paper from Christmas on my floor because my cats love to sleep on it. I even hate doing housework. There are a million things I'd rather be doing than vacuuming the house from top to bottom. Still, there are TWENTY million things I'd rather do than live in a dirty house, so I suck it up and get it done. And like my mother taught me, someday if I have kids (horror of horrors), I'll teach them too.