Yup… yup.. this is me… giving myself a virtual pat on the back.  Completely ridiculous of course, BUT… since the world has turned into a place where this is “how we do.”  I do…  🙂

So… the background:  I have ALWAYS been a mess… ALWAYS.  When I was growing up, my mom would occasionally have cyclone episodes where she’d come into my room, empty every drawer on the floor, throw everything out of the closet… and put it all in a pile in the middle of the room.  Sometimes she’d even stomp her feet and yell.  🙂  I came to call these her “mommie dearest” moments.  We had many a laugh about the wire hangers.

As I got older, she would ask me “How is it that everywhere you’ve been it’s STICKY!!!   You’re always STICKY!”    (This was not just when I was a teenager… this definitely continued into my late 20s).

The thing was… I never knew how it was “sticky.”  I don’t know why I didn’t clean as well as others.  I really didn’t!  I was just messy.  My mom and dad were organized, everything in their place… a place for everything…  My brother wanted things so orderly and tidy he ironed his money.  (nope, that’s not a joke.  He may still do it.  He’s definitely still fastidious.  You should see my mom and him do dishes after a Thanksgiving meal… it’s a sight to be seen).

Me…  I used to call cleaning my closet “spelunking.”  That was no joke.  I had virtually nothing on hangers in there…  Clothes were hip deep… most I never even wore.  (They were clean.  The dirty ones were one the bedroom floor.)

In my late 20s I went through this hoarding episode.  Soooooo weird.  Who knows what causes that, for real?  I lived in a dark apartment in Houston for about three years.  I literally let garbage fall off the table on to the floor.  My washing machine quit draining, and I wouldn’t call a repairman in to fix it because I was too embarrassed to let him see the filth.  THEN my air conditioning stopped working… for the WHOLE summer… IN HOUSTON… and I didn’t get it fixed because I didn’t want the complex to see the apartment.  I had friends and did stuff… I wouldn’t let ANYONE come over… .CRAZY!  Finally, one day I decided I couldn’t live like that anymore… Found a new apartment… threw EVERYTHING away (including most of the furniture) and moved.  I hired a cleaning lady to come in every two weeks so that I wouldn’t let THAT happen again.

The cleaning lady helped, somewhat… but STILL… I had the closet spelunking… and my CAR… Oh, my!!!   It was like my apartment… just more compact.

One would hope this would change when I met Richard.  Sadly, not so much…  Turns out, he’s something of a pack rat… and, although he likes a SPOTLESS kitchen… everything else…  Ehhhhhh….

So… we kept the cleaning lady to make sure things got picked up somewhat…  His closet was MOSTLY clean… because I did all the laundry…  And, although I’d just throw the clean clothes on the floor of mine, I’d hang his up and put it away…. sometimes… The other times, all laundry stayed on top of the dryer in a gigantic laundry volcano…

Then, in 2013, I bought a “new to me” car.  It is a lovely Ford Escape… and I vowed not to let it get all mucked up…  and I didn’t… it still isn’t…  more than two years later.  I can easily tell people that they are welcome in my car.  It’s not pristine or perfect… but there are no giant mounds of trash…  years of dirt…  trash bags full of things (yes, I had that in my former vehicles).  It’s perfectly acceptable.

Last summer, Richard and I moved to a house.  And, for the first time,. we had to share a bathroom and a closet.  Eeeeek!   I ALWAYS threw my clothes all over my bathroom floor as well.  Well, as of this month, we’ve been in this house for 8  months.  In the time we have been here, ALL clothes (his and mine) have been washed and put on a hanger every week.  There is no longer a mountain of clothing anywhere.

I do an adequate job of picking things up daily… so that when people come over it is not a horrifying experience for anyone.  I do not have to feel embarrassed when someone happens to drop by.

Is it perfect?  Would my mother and brother approve?  Well, come on, now… it’s not THAT clean…

However, it is an improvement… and I am patting myself on the back…

See, people CAN change!   Atta girl!   🙂