Crazy Cleaning Lady

No I haven't hired help...I NEED help...I am the cleaning lady and I. Am. Crazy...

We got an email on Monday from our property manager asking if they could do an inspection/ walk through with the home owners this Friday, I knew it was coming...This is an annual occurrence, since we began renting in Courtenay 4 years ago.

They are totally accommodating and super nice about it ....But it honestly makes me turn into a CRAZY lady for the days leading up to their intrusion ...For some reason I am always worried about being judged by those who enter my house. The anxiety is even worse if I don't know the people well. It's ridiculous really, I keep a pretty clean house most of the time, even though the rug rats feel it a constant completion to see how quickly they can undo my tidy organization....

Their are maybe five friends I would let in if I consider our house a mess...so if you have seen my house messy, you know we are tight...

I am driving my family nuts..."Mom they are not looking in the closets or couches so why do they have to be spotless?" They aren't even looking at cleanliness, they just want to see what repairs and up keep are needed...Regardless... I have been on a three-day cleaning frenzy. So if they look under the stove or on top of the kitchen cabinets. We are safe.

I know where it all comes from. I grow up with relentless hoarders. We could never have anyone over, ever. I hated the chaos of living in a disaster. It wasn't just the mess I remember it was also the smell. That smell is permanently burned into my memory. I have spent my adult life trying to erase that smell....My family thinks my super sonic sense of smell is beyond ridiculous..."you smell things no one else can ". Having to return to my dad's home recently and clean out his hoard sent me over the edge. After twenty years the smell had not changed...It is a mission of mine to never smell that smell again...especially in my home.

I know its NUTS.

Last week when we bought Grant's permanent CPAP breathing machine for sleeping...The sleep tech took the air filter out of the trial machine we had for a month and a half. And said "Man you must live in a clean house." Really how can you tell..."The air filter is spotless" It was music to my ears...I almost asked if I could get that in writing...I'm crazy. I know.

It's weird because other peoples messy houses don't bother me at all. I don't really notice. I am not a germ-a-phobe  either and have never minded helping other people clean...But it's something about my own place that makes me turn into a crazy lady.

I don't ever want to leave the legacy of hoarding my parents did, for my children...But I think I have gone a little too far the other way, this week for sure.

So family I am sorry....by Saturday I should be back to my only slightly crazy self...Until then it is your best interest to ignore me :)