My motto use to be “it’s easier keeping a house clean than cleaning a dirty one,” but these days keeping a house clean is not an easy task! When I was living on my own I would wash my laundry once a week, my sheets every other week, have my dry cleaning dropped off/picked up on time, and would keep my house in tip-top tidy shape – dusting and all! Since being married and living with another person, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be since we’re both quite similar.

Tanner had always been a pretty neat young man even in our college years. It was actually one of the first things that I took notice of and was very impressed with his very well put together bedroom! So masculine with his chocolate brown bedding, curtains, and decor (I mean the guy literally had “decor” and in college). While mine was more of a shabby-chic, light pinks, creams, and pale yellows, Audrey Hepburn love – the ultimate girly room! So you can only imagine our combined style when we married and came together in our current house. It was like trying to fit Anthropologie into a cigar humidor! But we made it work, despite our different cleaning strategies, (at least we both had them!)

The first year was absolutely perfect! Our house was always in a beautiful state. Laundry done, mail thrown away or filed away, dishes cleaned in the dishwasher, and sheets cleaned every other week. The second year was a bit more difficult after our laundry machine broke and was fixed but our routine was messed up…piles of laundry became a norm as we were both working out, changing clothes constantly, not knowing who was going to do laundry…our sheets, not so fresh and dishes started piling up when we’d both be working over 10-14 hour days… Then baby came along the following year. Laundry became the ultimate chore! Mail took over all counter space and dishes have become a nightmare after weaning Huntley from the boob to the bottle and the dishwasher broke! Yes, broke, meaning, I must hand wash every thing. It got even more difficult after finding out the the Comotomo bottle had been discontinued and when I was ready to purchase more there were none to be found until end of November, leaving me to purchase the Born Free bottles after reading raving reviews online. Probably one of the worst ideas ever, considering I do not have a colcky baby (especially at age nine months, at the time I bought them) and with six pieces to clean per bottle! Washing bottles throughout the day is enough for me, let alone the rest of the dishes.

We use to have a rule, “make it look easy,” when describing our hosting efforts and all the cleaning/tidying we do prior to having people over. But I’ve since dropped this rule since last month. If you’re close enough of a friend you’d understand the mail on the countertops, the laundry baskets and folded laundry on the sofas, and the few dirty dishes in the sink. If not, why would you even be hanging at my house? Maybe I’m just becoming plain lazy with the house not being in perfect condition, but for now and until the end of this year, I’m planning on “keeping it real”.