Sunday, January 23, 2011

Cleanliness is next to happiness

I am not a neat-freak.  Never have been, never will be.  That said, I do appreciate a clean, tidy and well-organized home.  (But it should also looked lived-in; I get freaked out when I'm in someone's home and everything is so perfect that I feel terrified to breathe too much.) 

I try to keep things clean and tidy, because I want to be ready just in case I get a call one afternoon from friends who are in the area and could they pop 'round for a cup of tea and a chat?  While the odds of this happening are about eleventy-billion*-to-one, I like the idea of being ready just in case.  Another reason this is important to me is because my mental happiness is increased greatly if the condo is presentable. 

When I moved in about a year ago, the Beau had been living in his condo for about five years.  Anyone who has lived alone for even a fraction of that time knows that you not only accumulate things over five years but you fill the space you have with what you accumulate over five years.  We worked together and purged and tidied and reorganized and have had a great set-up since I arrived; we've even been able to rearrange the furniture a couple of times, which is a pretty great option to have in a Toronto condo.

So, despite our condo-sized space and plethora of stuff, we've been able to find a happy medium of tidy and keeping the place tidy makes me happy, so this year I'm going to work on keeping a happy level of tidy at all times.  Really, it's as simple as spending 10 minutes after work hanging my clothes up and washing my lunch containers.  And it will be worth it for that one time I get that call, saying "How about we come by for tea?"

*"That's not even a real number"
"Yet."

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