"Hurry...They'll Be Here Any Minute!!"

I was going to start delving into some background material with this post, but I had to share something that happened this past weekend. Don't worry, you'll begin to gain some perspective even with this story.

We had a family birthday party for my son and oldest daughter on Sunday. Going into Friday, the house was a disaster (although that really isn't out of the ordinary). Believe it or not, some Christmas decorations were still out...Alright!!! Stop haranguing me!!! They were all still out!!!

Anyway, we go through this every time we have people come over. It's an absolute mad scramble to get the house in order. Let me rephrase. The clutter temporarily disappears, but only temporarily. The best example I can give is when you pull weeds from your lawn. They seem to go away, creating a false sense of accomplishment. Sure enough, though, they pop back up by the next spring...if not sooner.

During the process of "beating" the clutter back into the cracks and crevices of the house, I came upon a mess on our kitchen island. We're about, oh, 20 minutes from people arriving and had no idea what to do with all the stuff. I saw a bag on top of our family room computer desk, and I asked my wife "what's that bag for?" Her response was very telling about how we deal with clutter in our house. She said "oh, that's full of stuff from the island the last time we had people over (which was Christmas)!!

We ended up leaving the island the way it was, and did some last minute straightening up.

When we are cleaning up, one of us inevitably says, "We need to have more functions at our house. If we did, this place would always be spotless." I understand the logic, but it seems like a major stretch. Actually, the place wouldn't stay neater...we'd procrastinate cleaning up afterward, and then would scramble before the next event. We also aren't the socialites that we aspire to be, so the increased activity at our house may be a moot point.