On Cleanliness.....Or Making a Good Impression
I recently spent a week and a half as a house guest in the home of a friend of a friend. I had never met my host, but as we were driving down, my friend described her as “interesting.” She is a professor at the University of Georgia Veterinary School, and double boarded in Anesthesiology and Critical Care. In other words: super smart.
When she answered the door, her first comment to us was that she had vacuumed. She and my friend laughed about that. Almost immediately I noticed numerous stains on the white carpeting. Our host has one dog and one cat. During our stay, I learned that the cat throws up fairly regularly, thus creating some, if not all of the stains.
At some point early on, I was in the bathroom designated for me and my friend and I noticed it had not been cleaned. It was not filthy, but it certainly was not spic and span. My friend mentioned that when she and her partner would visit, the partner would absolutely have to clean the bathroom herself, before she could even think about using it. At some later time, my friend informed me that the toilet bowl in our host’s bathroom was black. Of course I had to peek and I have to admit I was a bit horrified.
Fast forward to my return home. I was only home a day when I was to host a friend just for an overnight visit. I pay a cleaning service to come every two weeks and the service had cleaned my house the day before I left for vacation so I decided the house did not need to be cleaned upon my return. However, I needed to clean the room my friend was going to be staying in, as it was a room not cleaned by the service. Moreover, I needed to switch out the shower curtain liner because it was beginning to show some mildew spots.
This was all important to me. But as I think about it, I am not certain if I was motivated to clean these parts of my house out of my own need for cleanliness, or a need not to be thought of as a slob. After all, the friend that was staying with me has been a friend for 20 years, and is the male half of a couple that has stayed with me regularly. I have also stayed with them regularly. We joked about the need to have a clean house for guests and whether that translates into a clean house for ourselves. We agreed that the standard for guests is higher than for ourselves, which, in my mind, is driven by the need to make a good impression.
I finally broke down and paid someone else to clean myself because 1) I like a (reasonably) clean house and, 2) I hate cleaning my house. I am not one of those people who enjoy cleaning for cleaning’s sake. I can go many weeks without dusting or vacuuming. Before retaining the service, I would keep the bathroom and kitchen (reasonably) clean by myself, but put little additional effort into the rest of the house.
Which brings me back to my vacation host. She is making a comfortable salary, yet, it is obvious that a clean house means nothing to her personally. She also does not think that guests need a clean bathroom. It was a fascinating realization for me.
And fortunately for me, my lack of squeamishness made it possible to enjoy my stay without feeling compelled to do any cleaning myself. But I felt an enhanced sense of delight when I returned to my (reasonably) clean house. And the added bonus was that there was less work that I needed to do for MY house guest!