De-slobification

I came across a great blog last week, on a side trip from I'm An Organizing Junkie, of a mom who describes herself as a slob on a journey of de-slobification. She talks about her difficulty maintaining (isn't that always the kicker) a clean home, and how her ability to see/solve/be-motivated-to-tackle small to medium size messes differs from what she calls "normal people". This strikes a chord with me, even though I have been doing fairly well with keeping my kitchen and dining room in order and nearly keeping up with the laundry recently.

The fact is, my poor husband grew up with a normal mom whose house was always neat and clean, except perhaps for brief interludes in a particular room when her kids were playing indoors. Andrew naturally enjoys order, and notices when things are NOT in order. This is not to say that he always picks up after himself (after all, he was the only boy in a good Dutch family with four girls - he had many things done for him) but I must admit that his own tendency to tidyness has slipped slightly since sharing a matrimonial home with me.

It's inevitable, really, when you live with a slob, that one starts to lose a proper perspective on a "clean" house. In fact, the state of our home has been the primary source of any ongoing arguments in our marriage. There have been pleas, raised voices, recriminations and tears over towels on the bathroom floor, no clean clothes, yesterday's dishes on the table, last week's pot on the stove... and while I have worked hard to make improvements in my housekeeping skills, there is always inevitably a time when the house is yet again an embarrassing mess.

So Nony's de-slobification blog is inspiring me to add some small steps to my routine - or maybe, simply to have a routine! - that will slowly build "normal" cleanliness as a habit and eventually turn even this messy mommy into a competent housekeeper.