“A week is a long time in politics” said Harold Wilson half a century ago. Well, a week is a long time in this house in the run up to Christmas. I have gone from chaos to order- and back again in just seven days. Bob says I am ‘entropy personified’
Here are some photos I took early on the morning of the day that Steph and Mark arrived – utter chaos in dining room and bedroom
By midday everything was put away and tidy and we had a splendid Christmas lunch, and there were clean beds for us all to sleep in. That was Dec 7th – by Dec 14th it had returned to utter chaos In the week since, the dining room has reverted to Sewing Machine Central [I have had five different projects on the go] The lounge is full of craft materials related to Messy Church and sheep. One spare bedroom is relatively tidy [but lacking bedding] the other is a repository of Christmas gifts. And we have both been amazingly busy – teaching, panto performances, carol services, funerals, other meetings. This week looks like being just as full - but it will be straight by Friday [it must be, it is our Christmas ‘Open House’ Event] The journalist Katherine Whitehorn said once that the only way she kept on top of housekeeping was to invite guests on a regular basis. I think her system is a good one.
I’ve been watching Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners on Channel 4. This week will feature a woman whose ‘passion for haberdashery has taken over her house’ I would like to state here and now that this is not me. But I acknowledge that I do have an astonishingly large collection of buttons and lace. I do sort my clutter regularly, and I do keep things clean – and I feel desperately sorry for the folk pictured above who spend 4 or 5 hours a day bleaching and sanitising. Especially the lady in the centre who has not hugged her daughter for years because of their mutual fear of germs.
I am very blessed in possessing the most tolerant of husbands – I am sure any other man would have strangled me by now, with one of the many lengths of ribbon, or skeins of wool, lurking about the house!!
Ang, I'm glad it's not just me - once busy things start happening it is only guests that force me to tidy up! I'm particularly bad during term time, when 10-14 hour school days mean I'm not particularly inclined to do much more than essential housework at weekends. Today, however, has been the first day of the holidays, so I have scrubbed the kitchen and rearranged the cupboards so that everything fits back in its place.
ReplyDeleteI love it when my house is super clean and tidy, but have accepted that it's a rarity.
A week ago my house was sparkly clean, and tidy; then I decided to make quilts as Christmas gifts - 2 of them! Now the house is not sparky clean, or tidy. There are threads, pins and pieces of fabric all over, but one quilt is completely finished, and the quilt top for the other is just about done. I'm aiming to have it finished on Wednesday- then I can clean up ready for KL, K and A arriving, and do the Christmas baking!
ReplyDeleteOperation Angela- a whirlwind! Our open house is Sunday and I haven't even soaked the fruits for the Christmas cake yet. How the day gallops away, when you have Internet...
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