Evidently a maid is the only thing that can save this place

Last week, we took our annual trip to Chicago to visit my mom's side of the family. As we walked into our hotel room, Ben took in the immaculate space and declared that he wished our house looked this clean. Oddly, this wasn't the first time one of my kids had such a comment. Upon seeing our living room unusually and especially clean one day, Paul said that it looked like "a hotel room in Chicago." Please, I wanted to tell them, hotel rooms really only look clean anyway. I mean, I'm not a major germaphobe, but these places must be crawling with all kinds of nastiness.

All of this is somewhat amusing to me, seeing that at home, my kids show no interest whatsoever in maintaining neatness. Then it clicked. Part of the reason they love the hotel experience is that you leave your room and go do something fun for a few hours, you come back, and your room is magically clean. You don't have to bother with actually helping tidy up or having your parents preoccupied for hours. Having neatness is only worth it if you don't have to make any sacrifices to achieve it!

So, this attitude isn't particularly shocking to me. I'm sure I was exactly the same way as a child. I guess I'm a little sensitive every time the boys notice the orderliness of other places. I'm not what you would call a gifted housekeeper. A friend of my mom's once came over to my house to drop off something and taking in our abode commented that she liked my house, that it looked "lived in." This friend is a lovely person, and I know she meant it kindly: that houses with young kids are supposed to look like mine does. That pretty much sums it up, though: lived in.

I would love to have a house that is neat and organized, but add in the possessions of five people in one fairly small house and one little person who seems especially bent on disorder, and I'm quickly overwhelmed. I just kind of shut down most days. I know this is the time of year for making resolutions, but I'm going to pass on making any kind of sweeping pledge to become more organized. Instead I'll aim to take small steps toward getting this place looking better and try to be at peace with the times I fail. I'll have to be content with that, because a maid is out of the question.