Finally, I understand

As I was doing the third load of dishes, the fourth load of laundry, and making dinner on Friday, I had an epiphany. It finally made sense in my head what all of the older wiser moms had been telling me.

See my house is always a mess. There are always dishes in the sink and there is always laundry to do. I know what your thinking "so what, it's the same way at my house." But you see this is different. Not only are there dishes in the sink they're all over the counter too. I only do dishes every second or third day. And with the laundry, same sort of thing. You'd think I was still in high school by the look of my clothes-for-carpet room. I only do laundry when I run out of underwear -- about every other week. And by the time it comes around that I have to do both, or be condemned to live at the store because I can't stand my house, it's overwhelming.

So now I have three basic rules that I follow:

1. Load the dishes as they get dirty -- don't wait until the sink is overflowing and taking up most of the counter space, you have guests coming over, or don't have any dishes left to eat off of.

2. When the laundry basket is full, do a load -- don't put it off until all of your shirts have stains so bad no one will believe they happened this morning and your down to your ratty I've-worn-these-since-high school underwear.

3. When there is a spill, clean it up, right away -- seriously, I know it's hard to believe but stains come out of the carpet better, and off the bottom of the fridge easier if you just take care of it when it happens.

I know most of you probably figured it out already, but for me, this has been a long time coming. And I know, I can't believe I lived in that filthy of a house either. But hey at least I figured it out.

So now when you call to come visit, I won't make up an excuse -- like googie is sleeping give her two hours to wake up -- and rush around the house like a mad women hiding all the messes. Just pop in for a visit and the only mess you'll find are the toys scattered around the house. By the way, any suggestions for keeping that under control?