It could be worse!

[vanillafluffy]

This evening, I watched Clean House: The Messiest Home in America (#2).

And y'know...I feel MUCH better. I don't even come close to qualifying by comparison. If, on a scale from one to ten, one is a spread in Better Homes and Gardens, or the like, and ten is those poor folks, then I figure I'm maybe a seven. At worst.

No pets here, for one thing. Plus, there's only one of me, and I'm not that compulsively acquisitive. I don't have an attic OR a basement, and my garage was tackled earlier this year. Considering I've been living here for 34 years and counting, it's not bad. (Although I think Mark would take one look at the original flying saucer light fixture over the dining room table and keel right over.)

They're rerunning it Thursday and Friday evenings---Style channel---it's worth watching if only to sigh with relief and forgive yourself a little. (You know who you are!)

Comments

[ang5fam.livejournal.com]

We just did a major de-clutter at our house while hubby was out of town. It's so nice to look around and not see piles of stuff! There's much more that could be done, mind you, but I am happy with what we accomplished.
I think we ALL believe our house is the worst until we see someone else's (like your folks on TV) I will try and catch a re-run.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

The plural pronoun says it all: WE did a major declutter. I'm a disgrace to Virgo's reputed organizational skills. I have a ton of ideas of things I WANT to do when it's clean, but getting it that way seems to be beyond me. I know I managed to "achieve" this all by myself, but I wish I could get a half dozen or so capable volunteers to spend a weekend liberating me from it.

[starhawk2005.livejournal.com]

I think I'm lucky, in the sense that I am both a pack rat AND a neat freak. I've got tons of stuff squirreled away, but the place isn't THAT cluttered (especially now, with the larger place). It's just when you have to pack for moving purposes, that it becomes evident just how much crap I actually have.

Though I HAVE tried to get rid of some stuff.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Uh-huh. I've only ever moved once in my life---and that was in 1974. (I never left the nest---I inherited it!)

[starhawk2005.livejournal.com]

LOL. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but that was the year I was born.

(sorry) ;)

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

o_O I have shoes older than you. (Okay, so they were my mom's....)

[starhawk2005.livejournal.com]

*snort* S'okay. I have sweaters older than me (passed down from Mom).

[strangevisitor7.livejournal.com]

LOL - I would never win any housekeeping awards and I've never understood the reason for making a bed when you're just going to get in it again that night - and really how many people are going to be lounging in your bedroom to notice.

That being said, My house isn't in too bad of shape because I am lucky to have two kids who don't complain about cleaning up the house. Chores are a wonderful thing. They are great slaves kids

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

I don't take bed-making to an extreme---pull the covers up neatly, set my stuffed polar bear on the pillow---no, it's the four-foot tall mound of laundry on the cedar chest, the stacks and stacks of books everywhere, the dust and hair spiders and STUFF. And that's just one room! The rest of the house has its own issues. *sigh* But still, it could be worse....

[karaokegal.livejournal.com]

Proving that reality TV is good for something. :)

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Uh-huh...kinda like the way rap makes disco look positively intellectual.

[karaokegal.livejournal.com]

Dudette, do not be knocking disco. :)

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

MOI?! Never! I'm just saying that until rap came along, there were certain effete snobs who consigned such stalwarts as KC and the Sunshine Band to the lowest rungs of the musicological ladder. Now, even they have to admit that, "She's a brick house, she's mighty, mighty, lettin' it all hang out" is true poetry, particularly in comparison to, "I'm gonna f*ck your sh*t up, ho, but first s*ck my d*ck and make it quick" and similar rap utterances. Disco was top 40 when I was in high school; it has a special place in my heart.

[karaokegal.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying rap is generally worthless, but there's something about
"classic" disco that really does have that happy-making quality. Of course, part of it has to do with the imprinting factor.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Truly, as evidenced by the fact that I frequently hum "YMCA" when I'm searching IMDb....

[socialhermit.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen that particular program/episode, but I've seen others like it. The mind boggles. How on earth can people actually *live* like that?!?!?

Er, I'm referring to the ones on those programs - not you! ;-)

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I'd be a ten on plenty of people's scales. And the answer is...inertia. Because after a certain point, it all reaches critical mess, where all you can do is criticize yourself as you stare at the mess.

I have not infrequently started cleaning and in the process, discovered a half-dozen empty trash bags scattered through the space because I've started trying to pick up before and gotten distracted/overwhelmed and not gotten any farther. I think what I need is long-term reeducation from an organizational person, because none of it comes naturally to me.

[socialhermit.livejournal.com]

I do understand what you're talking about. Not from a personal standpoint - I'm anal retentive about being organized - but because I've lived with someone who has that mental stumbling block (in Justin's case, it's ADHD).

Seriously, I did NOT mean that as a criticism! I was talking about those people on the programs who are entire families. What, not ONE of those family members could lift a finger?

Hmm...I wonder if inertia has a "hive mind" effect? ;-)

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the chick on this one was a weeper, and her hubby had a back injury, but yeah, I've seen a lot of eps where the kids went, "Hey, it was like this when I got here", basically. What's that old saw about "Everybody thought somebody was going to do it, but nobody ever did---"?

These days, it seems like slapping a diagnosis on certain behavior makes it okay. God knows what they'd call me if I was in school today---because I drifted through grade school inside my own head---these days I'd probably be riding the short bus and taking pills and drooling in the corner. But I went to a school where they overlooked my general blondeness, and now I have decent social skills and a formidible vocabulary. My so-called handicap hasn't held me back (unless you count the fact that I'm answering phones instead of ruling the world).