Rereading this earlier post – excerpts from my journals – made me grin.If you could use a smile, or a nod of recognition, perhaps, read on….
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I’m known for my cooking. How I wish that were not so.
My cooking skills are legendary for all the wrong reasons.
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Of course I believe in miracles! I say that every time something I bake turns out well.
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If I could, I’d have all-white furniture in my living room, and admire it from afar. I’d have to. I’m so messy at times, there’d be no real living going on in that room.
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How do they do it, those people in the magazines? Their sofas and chairs are spotless, their kitchens – their entire homes and gardens — are immaculate. There are no books or magazines left behind on a comfy chair, no cushions fallen from the sofa to the floor, no threadbare old carpets, no signs of daily catastrophes in any of their rooms.
How do they do it?
“They don’t,” says my friend. “It’s just for the photos.”
“Then I wish they’d stop,” I replied. “They’ve given me an inferiority complex.”
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A house can be a showplace, I suppose. But my home – now that’s something else. Though I am all for making a comfortable nest for my family and self, mine is a dwelling that shows the marks of living. By that I mean that items are often out of place, forgotten in one room on the way to another, left there till they become fixtures in their new location.
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I’ve assigned a virtue to my brand of housekeeping. I call it the “lived in” look. Well, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. My home looks and feels lived in, with books, blankets and cushions comfortably misplaced and eyeglasses and notebooks in any room but the one where I most need them.
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An interior decorator told me there’s a big difference between “storage” and “display”. My dining room cupboard was meant for display purposes, he said.
Oh dear!
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One thing the catastrophes of recent years have done for me: I have shed most of my false pride and pretense. And I’m trying to stamp out the rest.
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I don’t worry about impressing anyone. As long as the house is clean, as long as there are fresh sheets and flowers from my garden in the guest room, and people have enough to eat, I’m content. But this attitude of mine didn’t happen overnight. It took years.
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The wisdom that age brings is knowing that we don’t always have to accept what others think, or what they do…especially when we have experience of our own and some commonsense too.
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I hope your new year is off to a good start!
Love this Cynthia. Simple, homey, and good down-to-earth wisdom!!
Thanks for the smiles Cynthia. You have a healthy perspective on home and housekeeping. I’d say yours is a true home, while some of us have tidy spaces that aren’t that well lived in. To A Good Home! 💖
While I was reading this, Jackie was on the phone arranging for a visit from a woman to potentially help with the cleaning. 🙂
I totally agree, Cynthia. “Lived-in” is the way to go. We do our best when comfortable in our own skin and in our own homes.
p.s. When I look at those perfect photos, I totally know they don’t have pets. No living animal could ever live in the pristine-ness they suggest is perfect. Cheers for real living!
Too much hassles in life that we can’t control. Why artificially add to the stuff that is already heaped on us? Good way to go.
Love it. I have a lived-in home too. Scratches and marks on furniture and walls, little dust bunnies here and there, some spider webs for the live-in spiders, doors that won’t shut properly, pictures that refuse to hang straight………!
Words of wisdom along with the giggles.
Thanks for the big grin this brought. I think you know I am with you on the ‘domestic science’ spectrum. Getting this today has special meaning as it is the 55 wedding anniversary.
You are one of the special people sent to cheer me. I did not have to worry about my lack of culinary skills as my Bert just took over. I suppose he realized he had to or go hungry!
Let’s all make a Good Home, a happy home, a cheerful home, a home where all can relax. The rest will take care of itself.
My house has transitioned from a lived-in look to a dog lives here, and the dog rules.
My home definitely has that used and lived-in look to it, and many storage sites that should not be. 🙂
You wrote, “The wisdom that age brings is knowing that we don’t always have to accept what others think, or what they do…especially when we have experience of our own and some commonsense too.”. That is sound advice.
Once in a while, a bit of wisdom lands in my head! Best to you and your loved ones.
Your home sounds lovely befitting you.
Thank you, Cindy.
No whites here, but washables! I agree. Clean and comfortable.
Lived in is our philosophy too! I do like a good tidy up, so I don’t mind it getting messy now and again.
Me too.
I love this, Cynthia! A home should be a relaxing place to be. If it’s too pristine, too tidy and if someone follows you about cleaning up after you it’s not a comfortable place to be. It’s not a home just a house.
Well said.
My best to you and the family.
Thank you, Cynthia and my best wishes to you and your family too.
Thank you, Clare.
Cynthia, I love this post! Your comments catching the actual reality and life as it is being lived – instead of the sterile minimalist houses featured in magazines etc! When our son was young visitors entered with a warning for their safety -the floors full of train layout, cars, toys – ouch, the number of times I screamed as I stepped on a lego piece! But it was and is a happy home! Your home sounds just the same! 😀❤️
Your response makes me smile as I imagine the floors at that time. Sounds familiar!
A beautiful tale, Cynthia. Made me feel comfortable and at home, just like I am sure your house would. I wonder if sterile environments are made for sterile people. 🙂 Thanks. –Curt
That’s funny. Different folks have different relationships with space and possessions. I admire the minimalist look. But I wouldn’t couldn’t live that way unless I had to.
Agreed.
I’m with you.
Totally with you on ‘the lived in look’ that’s my house as well. 😉
I wonder if it’s an age and stage thing for me. No idea. Too much clutter drives me nuts. But so does too little!
I’m all for the “lived in-look” and feel most uncomfortable in some people’s homes which look like furniture showrooms with no hints whatsoever to their personalities. Pity we can’t have tea and a chat 🙂
Your post brought a big smile as did your comment that “It’s just for the photos”. My home rarely looks photo perfect, rather “good times were had by all”. 😊
Glad I made you smile, Karen! Thank you for checking in with my blog.
I could print this post and make a poster out of it. 🙂 Our house is definitely ‘lived in’, but I do have a compulsion to put things back where they belong. I’m not always successful, but I do try. I have never had any patience, and I wish I could say I’ve developed some as I’ve aged, but I haven’t. I continue to work on it, but I’m not too successful. 🙂
I hear you, Judy. I don’t like clutter, but I have learned to live with some things. I think the clutter in both the house and the garden during the post-accident years was one of the sources of my great frustration. Seeing it but not being able to do anything.