Over the weekend, we had a girl scout outing and I was driving one girl from our troop, her mother dropped her at our house once inside the girl began looking around. Now the last time I had schoolmates of Boo’s over the first girl to arrive entered our home and exclaimed “wow this place is small!” which at 6 or 7 years old is totally acceptable because in fact our home is small. So when this girl began turning her head to check out the place I was ready…and she said “wow your house is really cleaned compared to my house!” Oh my that is not what I was expecting…but it did make me chuckle. Since our home is small, we have to clean basically every minute plus one. I try really hard to organized and keep the clutter to a minimum but it’s endless! Now I’ve never been to this girls home, let a lone been inside, but I would imagine her house is all tidy, just  differently. She then told me she was moving soon, just a few blocks from us, apparently the home they are currently in is a rental, so I ask if it was bigger or small, she then said oh a bit small then our current one, about the same size as this one – speaking of our home. Ah, relief!
Why you ask is that relief? We live in a small town built on farming but grown up on white collar executives so incomes as well as homes range greatly. At my daughter’s school there are children that live in a mobile home or small apartment, all the way to three-quarters of a million dollar home. And luckily my daughter has friends throughout the scale. So when this little girl, was so similar to us, I felt like wow that is so wonderful to hear.
Speaking of the wide range of home sizes, on this girl scout outing we had another mom from our troop was there, now they live in an upper end home. We were talking about kids rooms and cleaning – normal mom “stuff” and she was saying her kids, she has 3- 14, 11, & 8, all have messy rooms, and no household skills ie laundry, doing dishes. I began to think…my kids don’t have messy rooms, because I help them clean them regularly – they are still young and need assistance. My girls can keep their rooms picked up pretty well, but typically on the weekends we re-sort the bins because by now toys are just shoved anywhere “mom won’t see.” That’s the great part of a tiny house…clutter and mess can’t hide very long. Now I can’t guarantee as they get older that this will still be the case, but for now it’s working, and hopefully they are being trained to do this on their own. Boo also helps do laundry…she’s bummed because I won’t let her start the washer yet but everything else she does. The little girl gets quite the work-out while switching the washer to the dryer, her routine is hop up on the washer get some clothes, jump down throw in dryer, hop back up on washer get more and she does this until she’s done. Never have I asked her to help with laundry, she just “LOVES” to do it. lol. I hope this one continues too!
surroundedbygirls 