I'm about to let the cat out of the bag: I'M MESSY. This is what my room looks like after I get home....my suitcase literally explodes.....

I always clung to the fact that I was messy not dirty. Pretty soon though, the mess was so big that I really couldn't clean even if I wanted to!

So....now I have cleaning ladies! It is like required cleaning. I don't really like other people to see my mess on the whole but, the cleaning ladies can't clean if the room is a mess. So it's like a win win situation! I'm forced to clean up my mess and then someone else does the rest of the work! Ha!

I broke down and got a housekeeper after I returned home last time. The house had been closed up for so long that there was a fine layer of mold on every surface of my home...the floors, counter tops, walls. The time before that I came home to a mouse infestation. I spent hundreds of dollars at the laundromat washing every single thing in the linen closet. It really really sucks to get home and then spend the first week cleaning. So this time while I was away I had the house cleaned every other week. It was wonderful. I could open my house up to travelers and not worry what they'd find! It was especially wonderful to come home to a crisp and clean house and be able to just crawl into bed without worrying about having an allergy attack! Plus, now that I'm home I can just worry about picking things up...which is clearly more than enough of a challenge for me...and I don't have to worry about picking things up and scrubbing the shower!

I'm not sure why I'm airing my dirty laundry in such a public forum (literally). I just felt strangely liberated yesterday when I picked up all my clothes put them into drawers and left the house....only to come back to sparkling countertops and gleaming floors. The moral of the story? Don't be ashamed to admit your short comings and get some help! My Mother always says, 'behind every great woman is a great team'. Too true!