I think I'm clean...

Back in the day, before the boy, when people stopped in unexpectedly, I always got compliments. I'd apologize for the mess in my house - usually consisting of a blanket on the couch and miscellaneous books, magazines and flyers on the coffee table - and I was usually met with "No, your house is so clean! It looks like you were expecting company. Have I come at a bad time?" To which I would be secretly very pleased and invite them in for a drink and a visit. I no longer get these compliments, not because we clean our house any less than we used to, but only because I have a 15 month old affectionately nicknamed "Destructo." The house isn't dirty, but rather just messy much of the time. This does not bother me.

I have been neglecting many of my household chores this week in favor of a looming free-lance deadline and have finally hit a lull where I have to wait for information from my client before I can proceed. I took this opportunity to look at the list of things to do before the house goes on the market (Nov. 1) and therefore things that need to be done before my in-laws arrive for a visit from Michigan (Oct. 28). Clean Laundry Room. Ick. Well, it beats cleaning out the pantry by myself. As I'm cleaning off the shelf and find myself using copious amounts of Clorox Wipes (easily my favorite cleaning product - I buy them in bulk at Sam's) it occurs to me: in the more than six years that I have lived in this house, I have never done a really good clean of my laundry room from top to bottom. Double ick. I mean really, it's the room where clothes go to get clean. Isn't it therefore clean already? It's not like I'm going to a public laundry mat. This is my house. We are clean people. That room is clean. WRONG.

Perhaps I won't get the you're-such-a-lousy-housekeeper look from my MIL this visit. (Wishful thinking!) She isn't a perfect housekeeper, but she thinks she is. Even if she hasn't vacuumed behind her dryer lately, you can bet that she will tell me that she has and don't I know that it's a fire hazard back there? Well, we're the ones who have to live here, so I guess if she comes to visit one weekend a year (yeah, they can't be bothered to come down for any longer than that), I shouldn't be such a freak about her visit.