If I didn't. . . . . who would?

My teenage daughters, from time to time, have looked at me and asked, Why do you have to be such a Neat Freak, Mom?





I realized yesterday, as I carefully washed and dried the frying pan before even dipping a fork into my scrambled egg, that I'm not so much a Neat Freak out of habit, but of necessity - for every cleaning action I make is preceded by the silent question, If I didn't do this, would anyone else???

And because, by nature I'm a pragmatist, I figure that if I'm going to have to do the task, I might as well get it done sooner rather than later.

It's simple, really.

The next time you see a household chore that needs doing, ask yourself, If I didn't . . . . . who would? (You can fill in those ellipses with any action you wish, the end result will be the same.)


Take, for instance, toilet paper . . .



If I didn't change the empty roll of toilet paper, no one would! My darling daughters would use every last facial tissue in the house just to avoid having to replace that pesky roll.

Or how about my husband's coffee cup?



If I didn't remove that cup from the bathroom shelf, no one would! (At least not before it doubled as a daughter's science project!)




Get the picture?

If . . .

I didn't . . .

make the beds,

empty the dishwasher,

clean up the doggie droppings,

throw away the used coffee filter,

dispose of countless empty water bottles,

clean the brown scum out of the recycling bin,

empty that disgusting drainer from the kitchen sink,

ruin the original "hair art" on my daughters' shower wall,

or

~ heaven forbid ~

discard my husband's used toothpicks,

THEN NO ONE WOULD!!!!

(Hey, look! I made a Christmas tree!!!!!)

Yes, I'm a neat freak girls.

What do you plan to do about it???