Nice to meet you Cleaning

              When you come to my house you will notice  we have a "lots of" problem. Lots of kids, lots of toys, lots of crap, lots of clothes, lots of food, lots of animals and very little space. All of this lots-o- love is crammed into about 900 square feet. Which would be fine if we had moved from 900 square feet to this, but we didn't. As all families do when you move into a house with more space you acquire more stuff to fill that space.  Even after 2 years and numerous blogs about organization my house is still a disaster. I can pin all day but it hasn't made a difference really. 

           About once a month we invite friends over for dinner or playdates, so the day before or day of we do  our Nice to meet you cleaning. You know that day when you run around scrubbing baseboards and clean the back of your toilet.... all the places that no one looks when they come over? Well we don't do quite that much, my baseboards are not clean. I do clean my toilet because I hate going to peoples houses in their bathrooms are gross. There has been that occasion where I hear my daughter YELL from the bathroom "MOMMY I DO NOT WANNA PEE HERE!" So I have that fear in my head that your child is going to come to my house and tell you that they don't want to pee on my toilet. So that room  is usually  hospital grade clean the first time you come over and most of the time after that.  Other than that most of my house is tidy and what I could not tidy is  hidden in my bedroom and in my garage.  

                There comes a point in  every "Nice to meet you cleaning" when I am  tired of cleaning so I fill up the burn barrel or frito lay box with things that we will "go back thru later". Later in this house means right before we move again...HA!  I have  started to lock my hidey place doors so that you don't accidentally walk into that door and you see all my stuff. Oops

                    After this first visit to my home you are like family. I am not making your plate or grabbing your silverware so I hope you remember where I got it from for you  4 months ago when you were here last. I am not hiding my laundry baskets in my room, they will be on display in the corner of my livingroom. My kids rooms will probably have clothes on the floor and toys already out for your kids to play with. Honestly the more you come over the less "perfect" my house will be but I will always have a clean bathroom.

            As mothers, wives, girlfriends, women....We are creations that feel that our home is a reflection of our skills to manage things so we obsess over the dust on our fans when we meet new people and have them over. Some of us still do this even after new friend smell is over. If we obsess over everything every time someone stops by it becomes so hard to keep up the appearance to be perfect managers that we just remove socialization  from our calendars. Well  I choose not to remove socialization but judgemental people. If my house is too messy for you than please help me clean it before you come over. Over the years I have slowly starting to realize that I need to depend on getting  my identity from Christ not how clean my house is, and peoples opinions.  We are busy living life and want you to live it with us so come on over with a 10 minute warning but be prepared for a gate greeting