confession

i dislike a dirty house. it's this thing i have. a thing for cleanliness and tidiness and organization. i'm sorry.

i get that my desire to sanitize is not shared with all people. i understand this. but i don't understand filth. actually, we had a conversation about this at my mother-in-laws on sunday. and i caught an episode on oprah about it just last week. about people who live in filth. a "hoarding" expert said these people have mental health issues. still, i fail to understand.

there's this house down the street. i pass it two or three times a day dropping off and picking kids up from school. everyday i anticipate passing this house just hoping that the people who live there might have noticed the shit all over their driveway and front lawn the last time the came and/or left their house. i won't waste my words on describing the condition of this home but the other day when i passed, the lady was smoking on the front steps and had left the front door open behind her. so, as any nosy neighbor would do, i did a drive-by peek of the inside. and then i died. it was that bad.

this is a sensitive subject. i don't want to offend anyone but then again, i have an opinion and it's mine. i don't expect anyone to agree with me. it doesn't really matter to me how you keep your house. i don't live there. my kids don't live there so, we're good but, i'd just like to ask her what she does all day. i guess i shouldn't assume that she doesn't work it's just that she's always home. on the front steps. smoking. in her pajama's.

i get that it's hard to keep a tidy house with kids around. our house was a whole lot cleaner when i worked. we were never home. actually, it wasn't cleaner, it's just as clean now but i clean a lot more than i did then. i also get that it's not important to some people. sanitation and all that.

i read all the stupid emails people forward with a clear message that we should play with our kids instead of fussing over housework. enjoy the hand prints on the walls for one day .... (dramatic pause) .... they'll be gone. i get it but seriously, do i really need to play with my kids for 12 hours a day? because if i do, then i quit. my mom didn't sit and play with me for hours on end and i'm okay (i know what you're thinking, maybe if you're mom had played with you for hours on end you wouldn't be such an uptight sanitizer but, you're wrong). my kids aren't home all day anyway. so what about while they're in school or taking a nap? it's not that freaking hard to pick the garbage up off the front driveway. i just have a seriously hard time with laziness. it bothers me. we have it easy compared to women decades ago and we're lazier. it's crazy. so i digress and leave you with this. this letter from the smithfield museum. a mothers letter to her daughter. instructions on how to do laundry. enjoy and count your blessins.

“Build a fire in the backyard to het kettle of rain water. Set tube so smoke won’t blow in eyes if wind is pert.
Shave one hole cake lie sope in biling water.
Sort things. Make three piles, one pile white, one pile cullord, one pile britches and rags.
Stir flour in cold water to smooth, then thin down with biling water.
Rub dirty spots on bord, then bile. Rub cullords but don’t bile. Just rench and starch. Take white things out of kettle with broom handel, then rench, blew and starch.
Spread tee towels on grass. Hang old rags on fense.
Pour rench water on flower bed. Scrub porch with sopy water. Scrub privee, seat and floor with sopy water caught from porch scrub.
Turn tubs upside down.
Go put on clean dress. Smooth hair with side combs. Set and rest a spell and count blessins.”

{taken from here}