We people are funny creatures.  We love to clean before we have guests over, or when a loved one returns from some time away.  Why is that?  Why is cleaning up so important before someone shows up?  I think a lot of it is a need to have control and orderliness.  After all, humans are always trying to control their environment, are they not?  Keeping things organized makes them easier to manage (aka control).  And so it is, we clean before any sort of occasion to control the impression we make on visitors and family alike.

Even I succumb to this.  Before Panda showed up this weekend, I put most of my things away and tidied up a little bit.  I tend to leave things around because I feel like a home isn’t really lived in if everything is tucked away perfectly.  However, I didn’t want Panda coming to my place to find nowhere to sit except on top of my clothes (my seating areas are perfect for piling up clothes).  I also didn’t want him to have to step over random bags or shoes to get around.  I guess it came down to a practicality thing.  But for most people, the appearance of a neat and orderly life is imperative to making a good impression.

Somehow along the way we decided that being messy was a bad thing.  The entire housekeeping industry relies upon this viewpoint.  To a certain extent, it is perfectly understandable; nobody wants to walk into a hotel room to find things in disarray.  Yet, in our own homes I think we could be a lot more flexible on the cleaning rituals we set.  What’s wrong with jeans thrown over the back of a chair or a ruffled blanket?  They don’t necessarily present health hazards.  Personally, I prefer to keep them that way.  Unfortunately that’s not how society views things and I know I’d get judged (however slightly) if I weren’t to change my habits when guests came around.  It’s too bad!  We could do with less time cleaning and more time focused on other things.