General Problem with Cleanliness

Josh and I have a general problem with cleanliness. We have clothes all over the floor of our bedroom. We often have dishes stacked in the sink waiting to be washed. We hardly ever do laundry since it's such a pain to get our clothes together, find the quarters, and rustle up the motivation and energy to spend some time in the laundromat. The last time we did laundry was over the Christmas holiday at Josh's parents' house. This is embarassing, but true. We also have a problem with general clutter, like mail, magazines, random papers we don't know what to do with, etc.

Now I want to say that our problem isn't of the severity that it's depressing to walk into our house. You know how sometimes people's houses are so gross and cluttered that you just want to get out? Neither one of us can stand THAT much disorder, but we have a decent tolerance for things being out of place.

It was funny to see how Josh used to rationalize our messiness. I maintained almost from the beginning that it was just due to the fact that neither one of us is a neat freak, and in fact, we're quite OK with some stuff laying around. Right after we moved, Josh said our apartment was messy because we just moved in. At that point, that was very plausible. Then after we had been there a couple of weeks and it was still pretty messy, Josh said it was because we didn't have our furniture yet. Again, a good reason. Then our furniture came, and things didn't shape up all the way. Josh said it was because we were still adjusting to being married. That reason was a little sketchier to me- what does that have to do with being clean?- but whatever. After several weeks with our furniture and no lasting improvement, Josh said our problem was that our apartment was too small for all the stuff we have. Possibly a valid point, but we occasionally went on cleaning crazes which proved that everything did indeed have a place. After several months of living in our apartment, we have both admitted to ourselves that we have a general problem with cleanliness.

You might not ever notice this if you come as a guest to our apartment because we go on feverish cleaning binges before anyone comes over, but trust me, when it's just the two of us, it sometimes gets a little out of control. I can't tell you how many times I've heard Josh say he's out of socks in the last couple of weeks. We might actually do some laundry this weekend, but I imagine we'll find something more interesting and more entertaining to do with our time.

Enjoy your weekend!