I went to see a friend's new baby yesterday and we both were complaining about our dusty houses...by the way Julie, your house isn't dirty at all compared to mine!
I admit, my house is rather dirty. There are many reasons (Dan calls them excuses) for its' condition:
1. Dan runs the wood stove to heat our house during the winter. The hot air is forced through the vents from the basement into the main floor of our house. I finally got Dan to admit to me a few weeks ago that it may be one of the causes for the fine layer of soot found on all surfaces.
2. Dan has decided that venting the dryer into the house (instead of taking it outside like normal people) will help keep moisture inside the house. He puts panty hose on the vent or ducktape but there is no way it catches all the lint from the dryer. I think he got this crazy idea from his dad.
3. We live on a farm.
4. We live just a few hundred feet from a highly traveled county road. Most country roads in our part of Kansas have a sandstone base with some gravel scattered on top. They are muddy and slick when it rains and very dusty when it's dry outside. It's hard to explain the roads to someone not from here, but it is almost like sand. When the wind is blowing in the right direction, our entire farmstead gets dusted everytime a car flies by. Our windows are almost 40 years old so some of this sand settles in our house.
5. I'm married to Dan. He has been known to track in rotten silage (he says by accident). He is just pretty dirty most of the time. He got the nick name "Dirty Dan" years ago, so he has been this way for a while. I have trained him to not walk on the carpet with his shoes on which I think is a huge accomplishment.
I have decided not to be so hard on myself about my house...there are so many other important things in life than having a clean house. I do wish my house was cleaner but its just not going to be. I love living on a farm in Kansas and being married to Dan, so my house will be dirty for the long haul. And I know I shouldn't complain. The first settlers in Washington County during the 1800s lived in dugouts nestled into the sides of hills. Some dugouts had sod roofs that would leak mud into the house each time it rained. Many years later during the Dustbowl, some people even died of dust pnemonia from all of the dirt flying in the air. So I know I shouldn't complain about how we live here and my dusty house. I am very thankful to have a warm home in the winter and food on our table. Most of us in the U.S. have a lot more than the majority of the world. But I did actually mop today. I couldn't really tell but Dan said it looked great! He is probably right but I'm hard on myself. I think most women are very hard on themselves about keeping a clean house. Is it really that important?
