Born to be bad (at housekeeping)
Reading this post made me so proud of my home. Here’s a sample:
“I love going to visit people in untidy, lived-in houses. They never look the same twice, like a landscape in changing light. I feel flattered, welcome, and comfortable when invited into a lived-in house. I feel that way because things have not been hidden. I have been allowed to step into someone’s life just as it is, and I take that as a compliment. . . .
I don’t know why, sometimes, when you go to someone’s house, they say “Sorry about the mess,” when their possessions are lying around. Why are possessions called mess? Why are they apologised for? They are evidence of living, of doing, of being, creating. They are nothing to be ashamed of. Unless there’s like a dead body under it all and the laundry has been carefully arranged to hide it.
In impeccably tidy houses, I feel incredibly uncomfortable. I’m never sure if I’m allowed to sit down and relax. I feel I’m messing the place up just by walking through the front door. If my mug is whisked away and scrubbed the minute I finish my tea, I feel it’s not okay for me to be there. Maybe it isn’t.”
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Random pic of our living room (literally the most recent I could find, in order to show the house at its most random/normal, including our zombie cat):
Pretty sure she’d like my place. I have friends over at least once a week and I never tidy up a thing. Sometimes, if a friend is allergic to cats and I remember in time, I put the couch covers (which is to say, several towels, a blanket and a mohair rug which surely can’t be good for anything else) under my desk while they’re there. The desk which is also in the same room.
Sometimes I tidy up the room-wide covering of toys after Louisette goes to bed. Sometimes not.
Look at Louisette not mangling the cat! The cat certainly looks hesitant, but it’s clear that she’d rather a (supervised) pat from Louisette than no patting at all. Poor neglected cat 
Felicity Banks 
buckbear said,
December 20, 2012 at 7:19 pm
I was talking to a friend (with a toddler) here just today whowas saying how much of a blessing Facebook is to new mothers who aren’t big on housework. Apparently on Facebook you don’t need to keep up the pretence of being up to date with housework; admissions that you finally cleaned the bathroom after three months will be met with congratulations and further admissions that it’s been even longer for them (and so on).
You know I’m *terrible* with housework, and I don’t have the excuse of a child. I live on my own and have no one to blame but myself. I could use the ‘I’m always working’ excuse, but it really doesn’t fly, given how long I also spend watching DVDs and catching up on funny cat pictures.
Louise Curtis said,
December 21, 2012 at 8:59 pm
If your guests can sit down, it’s all good.