Cleaning the house is ... fun to do?!

when it's somebody else's!!  why is that??  my whole life - it's always been that way.  i much prefer to clean for someone, than to clean up after myself.  i remember my mom being very annoyed with that fact... i would go babysitting and after the kids were down to bed, i would set to work cleaning the house.  (maybe i didn't know how to watch the tv, since we didn't have one at home ...)  the parents would come home to a nice clean house, dishes washed a put away (or dishwasher emptied or washing), toys picked up, books organized, laundry folded, etc...  they would make comments to my mom about how wonderful it was to come home to a clean house - and my mom would roll her eyes and reply, "now if i could just get her to clean her own room!!" 

in all fairness i will try to describe my bedroom vividly enough since i don't have a picture to share ...

imagine, if you will, the basement bedroom, 10ft by 12ft (maybe?!), just big enough for a twin size bed, a desk (3'x4'), a book shelf, a dresser and an open closet insert ... no doors on the closet.  now imagine, there are many hangers and a few with clothes on them ... but there are more clothes than hangers strewn about the room ... not hung up, or folded in the drawers ... mostly on the floor so that if one were to stand in my room they would be ankle-deep in a flood of fabric.  in your mind's eye look around ... every surface has either dust or clothes on it especially the bed ... when i wasn't sleeping in it, there was a thick layer of clothes covering it ... that pile would then be scooped off onto the floor when i needed to sleep in the bed and when morning came that pile would be heaved back to it's daily resting place.  the book shelf and desk are also disaters but mostly laden with 'keepsake' things like trinkets, papers, pictures, books, painted rocks, and mini statues.  when i was sentenced to clean it up ... i would spend more time looking at my priceless junk souvenirs and never actually get around to cleaning/organizing/washing/putting away/folding/picking up any of it.  my dad often warned my friends that 'they better tie a rope to their leg and the other end to the door knob, in case they couldn't find their way out of the mess' ...

even now as i type this out ... i am amazed that my mom never nailed my things to the floor ... like her own dad did to her sister's bedroom. (another story for another time)

today, and forever, i believe that "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17)

and so i sing:
Cleaning the house is fun to do, fun to do, to do, to do!
Cleaning the house is fun to do, when it's not a chore to do!!

maybe someday i'll trick myself into thinking this isn't my house ...
and these poor people need my help ...