The Smell of Home

Beautiful view of Belize, the first land you see bordering the Caribbean coming into Central America... Breathtaking!!

What is it about traveling that makes you think you have to dot all the i's and cross all the t's before you leave?  I guess it's sort of like when you're gonna have a baby, you start nesting near the end of the pregnancy and wanna make sure every little twig and piece of lint is arranged "just so" before the baby is born so you will have a proper nest to put her in.  When I travel, I not only want to have clean clothes to pack in my bag (that's a given) but I want my hubster to have clean underwear in his drawer and his jeans and shirts washed and hung.  I want the refrigerator cleaned out, the bathrooms acceptable, and the house pretty much in order.  I definitely would not call myself a perfectionist by any meaning of the word, but I do like leaving a straight house and coming home to the same.  Even though hubby won't be traveling with me this time, I don't want him to have to clean up messes after I leave.  Just ain't right.  But he is usually the one who leaves a mess if the truth be told.  And I have reason to believe he has hustled quite fervently before to have the house to my standards by the time I arrive home from a trip when he has not accompanied me and has been bachin' it in my absence.  Fluff the pillows, load the dishwasher, and have the candles burning, baby!  

Years ago I heard it said that you should always make sure you have on clean undies because you never know when you might have an accident and they may have to cut your underwear off!  That left an impression on me.  I think my obsession with leaving things "just so" when I travel is the same sort of philosophy. What if (God forbid) your trip is your final trip (and I mean final as in going-to-the-home-on-the-other-side kind of final)?  Can't you just see friends and family coming to your house to pay their respects and having to sit on a moldy toilet or find 9-month-old leftovers in the fridge?  I have been known to smell something foul for days at a time and finally discover it's an old pot of leftover greens I cooked three months ago and forgot was in the fridge.  It would be a total disgrace to the family left behind if that was the situation. I would've left a legacy for my family, but one they would not be very proud of.  I can just hear people saying to my daughters, Oh, you're herrrr daughter (the one who never cleans out her fridge)..." Gotta be careful about those things.  Also, smells are some of the first impressions, good or bad, folks remember when they walk into your home.  Once when we had a house on the market, a lady came in and asked the realtor if we had pets (we didn't at the time) because she didn't like the way the house smelled.  Afterwards we realized we had forgotten to take out the kitchen trash, ugh!  We promptly emptied the trash, called the realtor, and asked her to bring the lady back for another sniff.  We never heard from her again.

I certainly hope and pray this trip won't be my last and that I will return home safe and sound, complete with clean underwear intact.  And I hope that my hubby will remember his unspoken commitment to have the house straight when I return.  There is something about returning home to a clean house.  It's your place of abode at its very best.  If you are anything like me, you feel your home is really your castle when it's clean, free of clutter, and smells nice when you walk in the door.  If you are blessed to have a peaceful dwelling that you call home, it's that one place where you can rest without distraction, be yourself, and enjoy all the pleasures of life -- like a comfy bed, good food, a hot shower, and Blue Bloods every Friday night.  I think I like returning home as much as I like traveling.  Matter of fact, I'm sure of it.

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