I've been told on many occasions that I am a neat freak. Even when I was a child.
I do hold to the whole "a place for everything and everything in it's place idea" and I am trying to instill it in my kids. Mostly because they approach me about six times a day asking where this object is that they put down in some random spot. I also tend to "lose" things as well so I think putting things back where they go isn't so much a neat freak thing but a way to keep my sanity. You have no idea how many times a day I wander around the house trying to find my cell.
I also can't stand clutter in unnecessary places like kitchen counters, tables where you eat, behind doors in bedrooms (to the point where you can't open it all the way), and in living rooms where you entertain. Now my dresser is clutter central and I have to go through once a month and clean all the crap off of it to find paperwork and whatnot but that's okay because company doesn't go in my bedroom to see it!
I can't stand if food has sat out on a counter for more than a couple hours. I don't like trash or clothes lying on the floor, jackets thrown all over furniture, or cups left in random places overnight. But to my point: Do all of these things make me a neat freak?
The more I think about the way society is today as far as cleanliness and the way things were sixty years ago, no, I really don't think I am. Neat freak is a pretty extreme phrase like germaphobic and I'm not extreme. I'm just not a slob. Why does it have to be one or the other?
I think of the days when a clean kept house was normal. Really, it wasn't that long ago. Scrubbing floors on your hands and knees and dusting often were just the everyday. What's happened to society that such things are not frowned upon but considered a waste of one's precious time?
My theory? Laziness. Why vacuum when you have a tiny robot that will pick up your floor for you while you watch TV? People as a whole have become quite lazy. I saw on the Today show one morning the ladies showing off a machine that you slap on your window and it will clean it for you. Really people? Did you sprain your iddle widdle wrist spraying some Windex and wiping with a paper towel in a circular motion?
"I just don't have the time; I work." To that, I call bullshit. I may be a stay at home mom now but I used to work, come home, cook dinner, get kids fed and showered, clean the house and still have time to watch some TV before I hit the sack. The house may have not been shiny and sparkling but it was clutter free and the floors were swept daily.
No, people are just lazy and don't care. And just because I do, doesn't mean that I'm a neat freak. It means I can find things I'm looking for and my kids can play on the floor without cat hair tumbleweeds blowing through the room. If you like a gross house, fine, good for you. But don't label me just because you're lazy, folks.
My father always just dropped things where they were when he finished using them, but he could remember exactly where he left them. He could tell me exactly where a quarter-inch socket was on the garage floor that he had dropped there two years before. It was an amazing display of memory. If I don't put everything back when I'm done using it, I never find it again.
ReplyDeleteI wish my memory was that good but apparently that drive is so full of song lyrics not much else can fit in there! If only I could install a new memory drive!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it isn't just me. We lived at a house for five years and my husband would still come to me that last year asking where masking tape and stamps were. Memory is a tricky thing.
Thanks for the comment!