I had a dinner party tonight for ten people - yikes! I'd love to tell you that my house was so wonderful and spotless that I didn't have to do a thing to it, but unfortunately, that's so not the case. I did have to do some cleaning, quite a bit of it actually, but less than I would have in previous years. Back when I lived in California, it would easily have taken me three days to get ready for an event like this.
The nice thing was that I didn't have any big piles of clutter to deal with. I had a few midly cluttered areas to deal with, mostly my desk and our TV room, but mostly it was more about "scrubbing" type cleaning - sweeping, mopping, dusting, vaccuming, and scrubbing all the counters, etc. I think that's why it took so much time.
This group is a supper club group from my church. We take turns every month or so hosting dinners at each family's house. They are all dear friends, but I have to say that they really activate my home insecurities more than most of my guests. I've been to each of their houses and they are not only nicer than mine ($$$), but they are all beautifully decorated and always spotlessly clean. They always seem to pull off their turn at hosting so effortlessly. Their meals always come together so nicely (I forgot the vegetables in the microwave), they always have plenty of plates and silverware (I had to wash forks because we ran out) and everything always goes so smoothly (there was a plate in the stack with old dried food on it that the dishwasher missed - yuck!). Plus it makes me feel a little strange because my husband does most of the cooking. That's just the way we roll and he's a much better cook than I am, but I wonder what they must think of me.
I'm not sure what the lesson is here, but I guess it's just a glimpse that I am far from perfect and that I'm still on my journey too. It was kind of a flashback for me. This is probably the first time in a year or so that I've had to do the all-day crisis clean thing and I had forgotten how much I hated it. I spent a lot of time running around yelling at my family and we didn't get to do anything fun today, despite the fact that we all had a rare day off and it is the last official day of summer for my younger son. It would have been nice to have done something fun today instead of just working all day.
I think if I could go back, I'd do things a little differently. I'd have been a little more diligent in my 15 minute cleanups this week (a little too much Olympic time was a big distraction!), I would have done my Weekly Home Blessing last week and not had so much dirt to deal with this week. I would have focused my attention a little bit better by using my timer more to manage my time and been able to allow some time for something fun in the afternoon. I did use my timer a little, but not as much as I should. Usually when I'm cleaning, I take my timer and spend 10 or 15 minutes in each room and then come back for another round if time allows.
We are having another party on Sunday. We are having another family from church over for lunch after church. That's a good tip on managing your entertainment obligations. Once you get your house all cleaned up, get some extra use out of it by planning two events back-to-back. All I have to do is run the dishes through the dish washer, tidy up a few things here and there and help my husband put together another meal.
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