A House of Order

My house has never been cleaner than it is right now. Our landlord is coming tomorrow to show our house to a potential renter. And she's taking pictures. Of the house. With my stuff in it. Her computer crashed and she lost the pictures she took several years ago with the renter who decorated and made the place look so cute. I have not made it look cute. Have I mentioned that I haven't decorated at all? All of our decorations are in boxes that we never unpacked last June because I felt like one year was not enough time to unpack, decorate and repack those pictures. So we have bare walls, and I don't mind a bit as long as it means that I don't have to pack those extra boxes in a couple months. But it does mean that the house does not look cute for pictures.

I cleaned this weekend in an effort to make it look like we live here, but not really. Spiff cleaned his office/bike/tool room. I took a load of stuff to Goodwill. I rearranged the boxes in our storage room (which is the "3rd bedroom" of the house) trying to make it look nice. Did you know that it's impossible to make a room look nice when it is lined wall-to-wall with cardboard boxes? Well, it is. In the end, I decided that it is, after all, our storage room, and I ought to be okay with it looking like one. Tomorrow, I'm hiding all the toys in their cabinet (as long as my kids don't come along behind me and get them all out as soon as I walk away...which is what most certainly will happen). I deep-cleaned the kitchen and cleaned the floors, which is something that will have to be done again in the morning after breakfast. Sigh.

Why am I so concerned about this? For one, I don't want it documented, even on my landlord's camera on pictures that I will probably never see, that I usually live in a mess (not filth, just mess). And two, I'd like to make a good impression on the potential renters because I really want my awesome neighbor to have good new neighbors when I leave.

And the awesome side effect of all this cleaning is that my house is clean! For once. Ta-da!!! It looks pretty awesome right now, and I wish I could find it in me to keep it this way on a daily basis. I yearn for this feeling of cleanliness in my life. I want to freeze time tonight so that it will stay this way forever. But I live with three boys. The oldest works all the time and doesn't have the time or energy to care about keeping the house up to my standard of cleanliness. The little one has a good collection of toy cars that are always spread around the house, and a collection of cardboard toys (made by his daddy and beloved above all things--think cardboard tube and paper ball used for playing baseball in the house) that are not necessarily the nicest things to look at, but that are also spread around the house at all times. The smallest boy has an enormous capacity to make messes and undo things at a super-human pace. I can hardly put things away these days because if he sees me putting anything away, it only reminds him of it's existence, and then he has to have it! And Presto...Undone!

And let's be honest, I'm no winner of medals for organization. I'm a piler, mostly of papers, but also of things I just don't want to deal with yet. This weekend, I cleaned up my piles and moved them somewhere else. I will probably forget where. I have a system for cleaning the house, but it generally gets muddled and thrown to the wind when my children decide not to cooperate with my schedule. Silly children! What are they thinking, demanding my time and energy?! I desperately wish I had the organizational skills of some of my friends. I admire their ability to keep their house (seemingly) spotless at all times. I imagine them being 100% in control of their lives and schedule, instead of feeling constant chaos like I do.

Tomorrow morning, I'm prepared to re-do my efforts in the morning after my kids get up and get out the toys I have put away. I'm fully prepared to quickly throw some things in the closet and close the door as my landlord and her camera knock on my door. But I guess for now, I will sit here in my quiet, clean house while my family is sleeping and soak it in.