Cleaning Up

We had a Saturday night cookout.  It sounds like something fun and casual - bring the kids and some wine, we'll grill pre-prepared kebobs from Whole Foods.  Here's the catch - our house is not generally in company ready condition.  Entertaining is a way to keep us honest with our housekeeping.  We love having friends over, but we always have a mad rush to get everything ready in the hours before guests arrive.  The house looked great last night when everyone arrived.  

My last minute trick that I always end up using is to load all of my miscellaneous "stuff" that seems to pile up in stacks around the house into a laundry basket which I then place in the basement.  I'll bring the basket back upstairs in a couple of days when I'm looking for a bill that I know is due.  By then, I'll be able to sort a few of the items into the trash.  Of course, new stacks are already forming on my beside table.  Here's my entertaining latte - don't wait until an hour before company arrives, sort through a few stacks today.  I realize that many people may have a much better way of keeping up with things besides stacks so this may be a non-issue.

I do not want to pass these habits along to my kids, and I work hard on making sure that they know where all of their things belong so that they don't end up in stacks.  My husband would like to just get rid of all things that don't have a specific place to reside.  As long as my laptop and latte maker have homes, I guess I can sort the rest out as I go.