How Dirty Does My Home Need to be to Make You Comfortable?
I have one word for all self-appointed critics: boundaries.
All free-range critics need to rein in their opinions. Social Media has given people the misguided idea that their opinion matters, at all times, in all places. They could not be more wrong.
It’s bad enough that people are rude, unthinking brutes online. But uh uh, don’t dare bring it on face to face, especially in someone else’s own home. You need to remember that you are a guest in another person’s home. You do not own it. You do not run it. You sure as heck don’t live in it. So give up the notion that you need to open your mouth and critique how they live. If it bothers you that much, leave (graciously)…and don’t come back.
Since leaving California, I have had to listen to more than a few fellow human beings, especially of the male persuasion, make off-the-cuff remarks about my clean and neat home, even after I feed them. Is this akin to the mogwai-to-gremlin transformation?
Where I come from, most people kept their homes up, took care of their belongings. The friends and family I had there certainly did. Fast forward to Idaho and Texas, something seems to have gone awry. A clean home is a rare and scary spectacle, or at least that is what I am left to surmise. When even complete strangers (a roof installer, for one, and mind you during their so-called sales pitch) feel free to talk at length about the topic, that’s where I draw the line.
This brings me to the ah ha moment I had as to the best retort to have at the ready. Just how dirty does my home have to be to make you comfortable? Honestly, I can’t wait to hear the responses. In fact, I think I’ll keep a journal and then perhaps publish a witty illustrated booklet about them at some point. By then I may even have an understanding as to a) why people become so quickly obsessed with my clean home, and b) what the perfect ratio of clean to dirty actually is.
In the meantime, it’s pretty clear to me that society needs to take a deep breath, and learn some manners.
