Sticky Note To Self: Wash the Floors!

We were at a friend's house last night to help them with a new puppy, and as is rule in our house, we take off our shoes there. What I should have noticed was that the lady of the house walked around in flip-flops, man of the house walked around in gym shoes, and daughter of the house walked around in slippers. That should have been my first hint.

After about 10 minutes of walking back and forth with the dog and Evan, I had to brush something off my foot. I was horrified to see the bottom of my foot was already a shade of grayish black. I stopped to think. Had I walked around outside at home before coming over? No. Walked in the garage barefoot? No. I had showered just before coming over. That dirt was from their floors. Oh, yuck.

Now, I thought it would look obvious if I put my shoes on right then after being barefoot for the first portion of our visit, so when we went to take the dog out, I thought I could just leave my shoes on when we came back in. But my manners are well-engraved, and D'oh! I took them off again without even thinking. So, for the rest of the night, I brushed various substances off my feet, tried not to openly grimace at my blackened feet, and couldn't wait to get home and wash them off. And when we got home, I did just that. I scrubbed Evan's feet , too, as he slept soundly in his bed- his clean sheets, for crying out loud! I also took a hard look at my floors.

Don't get me wrong, my house can get messy. I have a 3 year old and 3 dogs. You will more than occasionally find a tumbleweed of dog hair or a sticky spot of juice. The catch is, I take care of cleaning it up when I find them. I vacuum 5-6 times a week (3 dogs, remember?) and wash the floors weekly as well. When I don't have time to do either, I sweep up the dog hair on the wood floors and spot clean the floors. You may walk in and find dishes in the sink, matchbox cars all over the place, and magazines sprawled over the table, but underneath all of the mess is a clean house. You will not get black feet from walking through my house, nor will you have to brush off various substances from the bottom of them. Yes, you may pick up some dog hair if you wear socks, but it's clean dog hair- they all just got baths yesterday.

My house gets messy, no doubt about it, but I invite you to walk through it barefoot. You won't be sorry. Bottom line is that there is a difference between a messy house and a dirty house. Don't you agree?