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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Extremely clean home. My mother took pride that when the pastor came over, he said he could "eat off the floor." My mom was maniacally obsessed with keeping things clean and organized, and she did it all herself when I was young. I marvel at it now. I think psychologically, it was an image thing, because she grew up poor (but clean!) and [b]needed cleanliness to show she was good enough/had class/etc, could at least not be a dirty poor person. The cleanness was proof of worth, and next to godliness.[/b]

Today, my house pretty clean but I leave dishes overnight sometimes and I do not stress. I have a housecleaner to help. I love things to be clean but can't see how I could keep it all up myself without going nuts. I am not up to my mom's standards.

Another difference between my mom and I, is that I am very minimalist while she liked to have stuff. I don't want to take care of so much stuff. This is probably a boomer/gen x difference.

[/quote]

This is extremely insightful of you.  DH grew up mid-lower class (ie: had nothing extra, wore hand me downs, like many of us) - but MIL was depressed and not "into" anything except obeying orders from FIL.  Cleaning was absolutely NOT on her radar, nor is it today. Not much of anything was/is on her radar, except maybe television, which I always thought was kind of sad. In my family, we didn't have a lot, but we all worked hard and from a young age outside the home.  Mom worked full time, among other things, and absolutely kept a clean house regularly.  For her, it was having pride in what little one had, no matter.[/quote]

Forgot to add, when the ILs came over when we first married (before HGTV), they constantly questioned why we didn't have mail/laundry/shoes/etc all over the house, or why we wanted things to look nice (not posh, or high end anything, just nice) and thought we were somehow showing off - which is still funny to me - especially because I never thought to comment on how they lived.  Apparently, they liked it better when DH was a bachelor and had stains rugs and a stained futon, instead of a clean one. LOL. So posh! [/quote]

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