Clean vs. Tidy

Would you rather have a clean house or a tidy house? Is it realistically possible to have both?? I am not really a messy person. In fact, I am very organized – at work. At home, I have piles everywhere it seems. Since having kids, our kitchen table has been a dumping ground for (fill-in-the-blank). School papers, the mail, forms to fill out, and the list goes on. I don’t remember having this issue before kids – why is that? Piles begin to grow elsewhere, too. Clothes start gathering on floors, get tossed on the furniture (really, come on), and office boxes/files don’t fit in the filing cabinet anymore. So our house isn’t very tidy. But it is relatively clean! I know how to clean pretty well and don’t mind doing at least a little bit at a time. I have systems in my head of cleaning an area of the house each day of the week so the whole house will get attention in a week time. It’s when everything needs cleaning and you don’t know where to start that I can’t get motivated to begin.

A few weeks ago, we went to have lunch at a new friends house. They have kids our age and even have a slightly smaller house than ours. It. Was. Spotless. There were no piles. There was no clutter. They displayed collections in cabinets. They even had room on top of shelves for photo frames spaced out. I know it’s our turn to have them over next and I shouldn’t compare, but I don’t think our house will ever look like that. Yes, I know they are friends with us and hopefully wouldn’t judge us for what our house looks like. It is a daunting task to try and clean up these untidy messes. Again, in my head, I think I will tackle a pile a day. But I still get overwhelmed. Maybe I’ll just wipe down the sink again and the sparkle will shine so brightly you can’t see any clutter. Maybe that will work.