We have all said it at one point or another in our lives.
"Sorry my house is dirty."
"The house is a mess, but come on in!"
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"
Okay, so maybe not the last one, but you'll see what I mean in a minute.
The past couple weeks I can count three different times when someone apologized for the mess in their house. I would like to make a public announcement about these Dirty House Statements. When you say your house is dirty all you are doing is drawing more attention to the Mess. (Gasp!) And here's another weird thing: Those three times I was in someone else's home, I didn't even NOTICE the mess until they said something! It's the same concept as "Don't look at the elephant in the corner." What are you going to do when someone says that to you? You're going to look at the pachyderm, of course!
So let's look at Dirty House Statement #2 "The house is a mess, but come on in!" Do you know what it really means? Either (1) "I would have rather that you called before you stopped by so that I could have made the front room presentable" or (2) "I wouldn't have cleaned this even if you did call before hand, I just would prefer that you don't come in" or (3) "I'm pretending the house isn't normally like this, but it actually is."
Now about Dirty Houses. I can honestly say that I once saw a "Dirty House" and was relieved about it. I once entered a lovely, cozy, well kept home. "This woman obviously has everything pulled together and has an amazing life!" I thought. Then a few weeks later I went over to her house again. It was pretty messy. I sighed within and felt at peace knowing that she wasn't perfect yet.
Conclusion: We do not need to make excuses for our homes when they are messy once in a while. Life happens. We get busy, something throws us off track, our kids are insane.
I definitely am not a clean freak or a perfectly organized CEO of the household. But I have sworn off saying, "Welcome to my home. My house is a mess. Please make yourself comfortable in between yesterday's Squashed Frozen Pizza and my daughter's freshly messed panties."
Okay, actually I may say that one day. But just for kicks.
**This post is not meant to offend anybody on their protocol on inviting people into their homes. Just take it as a general Lindsey opinion on her observations of life.**
5 comments:
I agree! Our home and visiting teachers and anybody else that comes to our house has to look and what ever craft mess I have made over the weeks because it lives in our living room and I'm not about to put it away so that the room looks nice.
Perfectly what I needed to read today. Seriously, my house IS a mess at this moment and reading this makes me feel less crazy about it! Although it has been more than a week since I vacuumed and that fact is driving me a little batty! (I suggested we vacuum as a family for our FHE activity last night but nobody else got excited about it...) Anyway, (now that I just made a whole bunch of dirty house statements) I have to say I agree with your thoughts!
my excuse is I'm a working mom does that count?
Lisa, please reread the conclusion. :)
It's true. My house in generally messy. In fact, maybe I will start saying (on rare occasions) "Hey, my house is clean for once, I hope you notice!"
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