_______This Old House

Every now and then, someone will ask me how I keep my house clean.  Let me just admit that it makes me very happy to hear this.  I love the fact that someone has noticed the clean floors and wiped-down counter tops and not noticed the dusty blinds or the (what is that?) up there on the wall.

When we moved into a house three times the size of our California condo, I was asking myself the same question, "How am I going to keep that house clean?"  Of course, with my vivid imagination, I envisioned living in this large house and hiring a maid service to do the tough job of keeping it clean.  After all, we were clearly moving up in the world.  Well, the funny thing about moving up in the world is that image and reality don't always get along.  Turns out when you invest your money in a home-upgrade, you just possibly might not have enough money left over to invest in much else. So, once we moved in, I pulled up my sleeves and got to cleaning.

After living here for two-and-a-half years, I think I finally have the answer to that question.  There are two little tricks I use in keeping my house clean:

1.  I clean it.  Yup, that's right folks.  The trick really is that I clean it pretty much on the same day every week.  I do laundry and a little cleaning on Mondays and a little more cleaning on Tuesdays.  Every other day I just try to keep it picked up as best as I can.  Cleaning it regularly keeps it from getting to be too much of a job and keeps it from causing me to stress when we have people over (which happens at least twice a week).  My second trick is...

2.  I don't clean it.  I know, the genius here is almost too much to bear.  But, truth be told, I ignore quite a lot and pass on a lot of potential housework.  For example, the vacuum only finds its way upstairs when the cracker crumbs in the playroom begin to take on a personality of their own. When I can no longer ignore it, I take care of it, and not a moment before. Same with the kids' bathroom and the upstairs dusting.  It's all done on an as-needed basis and my need to keep those areas as spotless as the downstairs remains rather low.

Now that I have a manageable system and have been keeping it up for two-and-a-half years, I have decided that, even if we were able to afford a regular maid-service, we would pass.  We have learned so much in the past few years about spending money wisely and being good stewards of the blessings God gives us.

We have also learned to feel that this house of ours is not really ours at all, but a blessing that God has loaned us to share with others.  We absolutely love having people over.  I'm not talking about the "bring out the fine china and break out the champagne" kind of gatherings.  I am talking about the "bring your kids, bring your mess, have some tea, be our guest" kind of gatherings.  That's my motivation for keeping this house clean: not so that everyone who walks through the door will be impressed by my skills, but so that I can be relaxed and available to sit down and enjoy some good fellowship with the people God brings our way.

Thank you Lord for this house and for the friends you bring here for us to share it with!