I'm gonna share a really rare sight with you.

This is something almost no one ever sees.

In fact, it kind of shocks me.


are you ready?

are you sitting down?

if you have heart problems, have you taken your nitroglycerine?

do you have (depending on your preference/ethnic background) a strong hot cup of tea, a shot of vodka, a couple fingers of neat whisky, or your tequila/lime/salt combo?

'Cos like I said, this is shocking....







It's my fridge! All clean! No more spills, no more slops of chocolate syrup or oozy salad dressing where the bottle tipped over and the cap wasn't on tight.

This is one of the housecleaning chores I RARELY do. Usually only when I'm expecting someone coming who might look in my fridge. Normally my fridge is in an embarrassing state - things tend to get pushed to the back, I will wrap up leftover halves of onions in saran and forget it until it's all black and slimy, I'll knock over bottles of salad dressing or maraschino cherries and not wipe up the juice because I'm in too much of a hurry...and it gets really bad.

(And I realize, looking at the photo - I own a shocking number of partially-used bottles of salad dressing).

For some reason this is one place where it's hard for me to be a responsible adult. I know responsible adults keep their fridges clean but I can't quite seem to manage it all the time.

So a couple times of year, I go into freak out mode and realize that someone who IS a responsible adult might actually see my horrible horrible fridge, and I clean it.

In this case it is my mom - who really wouldn't care (and honestly, whose fridge occasionally gets in a bit of a state but never near as bad as mine). But somehow - even though they've never said anything about it - I feel driven to clean my house as completely as possible when they are coming.

I even dragged out all my pots and pans and swept the cupboard they were in (I live in an old old house with gappy cupboards and they do get a bit dusty) and reorganized them.

I think, psychologically, it's my overcompensation: "Look, mom! Look, dad! I never managed to marry or have kids [not that they care but at times it seems that the rest of society DOES] but I'm still a grown-up! See! See my nice clean cupboards?"

It may also be a bit competitive; when I've been over to my brother and sister-in-law's house it's often a bit of a clutter and so maybe I am doing a bit of the old "Hah! I am the Responsible Older Sibling! Look at how much cleaner I keep my house than you keep yours! Look at the effort I go to when parents come!"

Actually, my brother and sister-in-law have never been to my house and I'm really not all that competitive with them otherwise...but for me, house-cleanliness (or lack thereof) seems to push some buttons in me.

I guess I'm also kind of giddy that the horrible horrible task of cleaning my horrible fridge is done. Now I just have to sweep and scrub the floor and scrub the counter tops.