Please keep this on the down low.
Most days, I leave my house with the bed unmade.
Thankfully, my mother and mother-in-law do not follow my blog but if they did, they’d probably be gasping for air right now. These women are more than just your average “clean freaks” ~ they’re the kind that wipe down baseboards weekly. The kind who never have anything in the refrigerator over 3 days old, who pull out the refrigerator every month and disassemble the stovetop to make it showroom ready. They are the kind that should never worry about drop-in visitors but definitely do. God forbid anyone would ever see a used spoon in the sink or a towel in the guest bath not folded properly.
I say this with great admiration. I will never be that person but I admire those who are. My house is clean~ cleaner than most, probably. That said, my bed is unmade and my coffee cup is sometimes in the sink when I leave for work. My laundry room isn’t spotless. In fact, my laundry room has pretty much had a consistent pile that needs washing and drying for as long as I’ve lived here. It’s my Friday thing so Thursday isn’t pretty in there.
This week, I tried something new. I climbed out of bed at 6 something every morning and made my bed first thing. This small, effortless task resulted in me feeling really good about re-entering my room at the end of the day. It also made climbing into bed later that evening better…I’m not a big fan of climbing into an unmade bed, I realized.
To be fair, those two women had 24/7 to devote to their housecleaning and they did it exceedingly well. My mom wore the crowning achievement of a Better Homes and Garden home as if it were a gold medal. It was her personal best. At one time, my parents even owned a furniture store named “Tidy House Furniture”. Yep, my mom was pretty focused on that endeavor.
My personal best focused on other things, I guess. No one will ever say that I had the cleanest house known to man but I don’t think anyone can leave my house thinking I’m not at least tidy.
But, mom, you were right about making up the bed every day. There’s just something better about it and I thought you were just nagging. Well, maybe you actually were nagging a tad but, still, you were right.