The Places We Dwell...

Recently I've noticed more the homes that people I know live in... and there's a part of me who is envious, and part of me who just loves the home I'm in. So many different styles, tastes, ways of life... it's so interesting. You can tell a lot about a person/people/family by their homes and the conditions of their spaces.

One of our neighbor families is moving away to Virginia, and their home is for sale. I've been there, spent time inside, and have been in love with it for many different reasons. It's huge, for one. It's immaculate, even though they have four children under the age of 8. The woodwork is all original, the furniture is all period pieces, and they have the financial ability to make their home into a true work of art. That's what I envy... the ability to have things that set the inside of your home off to be as pristine and beautiful as the outside. We bought our home because of the beauty if held as a structure, but haven't been able yet to fill it with loveliness to the point where I can be proud. Pride is an ugly thing at times - I shouldn't feel the way I do, but I admit, my furniture isn't what I want it to be. However, I have friends who call their houses 'shitholes' - two sets of friends who we spend quite a bit of time with. One has the ability to do something about it, yet don't have their hearts in it, and therefore don't change the inside to their liking. The other has the ability, and are trying to update their home, but time passes, and things get put aside, making it hard to enjoy having people over (in their opinion). Life gets in the way a lot... things happen.

Inside some of my friends' homes it's as if no one lived there. Nothing out of place, not a speck of dust, everything as if the home was empty. I love a clean home, but don't have the gumption to get at the dusty corners, hard to reach spaces that things and dust accumulate, clothes in places they shouldn't be... sometimes it's a mess. I envy the people who can keep their homes clean and immaculate like the one enormous home we visited this past weekend. We don't know the people well, but the home is enormous, brand new, and decorated to the T. Nothing out of place, no dust to be seen anywhere, every room was perfectly decorated and kept. How do you do that when you're a full time lawyer and your husband is away a year at a time in the service? Maybe they have a cleaning service, I don't know... either way, I was highly impressed. I have other friends whose homes are smaller, but it's the same way - perfect decorations, nothing out of place, no dirt... it frustrates me a little inside. I don't work right now - so why is my house a mess? Is it that I just inwardly don't care? Is it laziness (that's my bet)? I feel as though I should be doing more.

Messy homes are the sign of an active household. Kids playing, meals eaten in front of the television, full time working parents who don't have the time to set aside for such things as dishes, laundry, picking up toys fifteen times a day, etc. I grew up in a bit of a mess myself... my mother hated cleaning, and didn't really put her all into it. There was a point in time when she did, but the turning point in all of our lives was when my dad passed away, and mom stopped treating us all like children, and expected us to make our own way. Clean your own laundry, help with the meals, clean up after yourselves. I was a child for way longer than I should have been... To this day mom hasn't changed her ways much. She has had to relearn how to make her home presentable. I think some day I'll have to learn that same lesson, as I'm like my mother in a lot of ways. But why, if I'm flustered by it right now, can't I change right now? I have no clue why I'm the way I am. Frustrating.

In any case, it was just a small case study, seeing how people live, why they are the way they are, and how things for some people are easier to accomplish than others. I know we're all different, but it's interesting to know why some things go undone and others are so overdone...

Tell me about your house style - your living style... what bugs you and what keeps you doing the same things... I'm interested.