My dad and step-mother will arrive in South Bend on Thursday afternoon. It will represent the first time I've seen them in more than a year. To prepare for their 3-day visit, Della and I must strike a delicate balance.
You see, dad & Susan are neat freaks; Della and I are very cluttered. Our home is dominated by our pets and we RARELY invite visitors inside. The balance we are trying to achieve is to make our home neat enough for our visitors, while not so neat that a) we wear ourselves out cleaning it up and b) we can't find anything after they leave. :-D
In the old days, I would work for weeks to get our house in spic-and-span shape before relatives visited. While I wanted them to feel comfortable, the main motivation was that I wanted to fool them into thinking that this was how our home always looked. I wanted our household to fit within an external definition of what a family home looked like.
I am not concerned with that external definition anymore. Both Della and I are naturally messy and it works fine for us. Who really cares if it doesn't work for other people? They don't live here!
So, the compromise we've decided to make is to work hard on insuring that the living room, dining room, kitchen and both bathrooms pass the white glove test. The other downstairs rooms will be less cluttered than usual. Upstairs will be off-limits to dad and Susan because, since it's my "cave," I'm not going to worry about it. My numerous piles of books, other reading materials, scribbled notes and papers are going to stay right where they sit.
Like I said, it's a delicate balance.
You see, dad & Susan are neat freaks; Della and I are very cluttered. Our home is dominated by our pets and we RARELY invite visitors inside. The balance we are trying to achieve is to make our home neat enough for our visitors, while not so neat that a) we wear ourselves out cleaning it up and b) we can't find anything after they leave. :-D
In the old days, I would work for weeks to get our house in spic-and-span shape before relatives visited. While I wanted them to feel comfortable, the main motivation was that I wanted to fool them into thinking that this was how our home always looked. I wanted our household to fit within an external definition of what a family home looked like.
I am not concerned with that external definition anymore. Both Della and I are naturally messy and it works fine for us. Who really cares if it doesn't work for other people? They don't live here!
So, the compromise we've decided to make is to work hard on insuring that the living room, dining room, kitchen and both bathrooms pass the white glove test. The other downstairs rooms will be less cluttered than usual. Upstairs will be off-limits to dad and Susan because, since it's my "cave," I'm not going to worry about it. My numerous piles of books, other reading materials, scribbled notes and papers are going to stay right where they sit.
Like I said, it's a delicate balance.
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