"Perfectly" clean home - yeah, right

"Allow yourself to enjoy your home not in spite of it’s quirks and flaws but because of them. A home is for enjoying, living, loving, laughing. And all of those things are easier when you’re easier on yourself and love where you live for being perfectly imperfect."

I recently read this statement in an article on home decorating and was really caught by the message of this sentence! I am always looking for new ideas and ways to update and rearrange things and keep things looking as nice as I can with a lot of people living in my home. When we moved to this new house my goal was to keep it "perfectly clean". Yeah right, with little ones and people coming and going and lots of things on my agenda besides house cleaning this has not always come to fruition. I love my home. We picked out the colors and the furniture and things to make it look beautiful! But as we have "lived" in our home it is starting to looked a little lived in. I was thinking (as I sit here writing this knowing there are dishes to finish, floors to clean, a refrigerator that is in desperate need of a good cleaning out, bathrooms that need my attention, vacuuming to be done) of all the little things that need to be repaired or repainted or the "to do" list I always have for David.

I love love shabby chic! I like old things! These things come into my home with imperfections and that is what gives it character and charm. I think of what story that piece of furniture might tell if it could tell us a story. This one sentence above - really is how I feel about my home. I have learned that it is OK if things are not perfect all the time. I am not for letting things go so it is so beyond repair but some things that aren't perfect are OK. Take my hardwood floor. I was thrilled to have it but not so thrilled when the scratches and dents started to appear. But now as time as gone on and more wear to it those lines and dents tell a story of a happy baby playing with trucks and cars, chairs moved and blankets pulled over for the most amazing forts! They tell of love and happy times. My mom tells a story of when my older brother wrote a note on her table but did not have a book or something underneath it. It left marks on the wood. At first she was annoyed but after my brother had died she looked at those marks very differently. She treasured them as they were part of him. Often times after I have left her home with one of my little children she leaves the fingerprints on the window for a while. She says she can treasure the visit longer as she looks at the small hand print. In my old house when Chad had learned to write he wrote his name on our basement door with black marker. I left if there until we moved and had to repaint. I wanted to remember this little man who was so excited about learning and that his name was important enough to leave a signature on my door. I did teach him it was not the best place to leave autographs and got him his own notebook to write in - but I loved seeing his name while I went about my cleaning each day and he was out of the house turning into a grown up boy! There are many stories that have happened similar to that in our home and while sometimes I was not very happy at the time about it I look back now and see the marks and lines around me and know of the stories they tell of a home that was filled with loving, living, and happy times!

While a clean home has always been my goal and continues to be so; a "perfect"ly clean home as a goal has long gone by the wayside.