jenx67, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that our homes are so similar, seeing as how our very LIVES are so similar! And I thought the random laundry baskets were my very original trick. :) Do you think that clutter is just a metaphor for our minds, or is there also a direct connection? I'm amazed at how much emotional peace I feel when my physical space has been put in order—not entirely perfect, because it never is, but just when things have been addressed head-on rather than piled and shoved.

Jeb, will there ever be enough time to read, again? I remember a time in my life when I regularly devoured books. Oh, I guess that was pre-kids, pre-blog. But we don't even have TV—at least not one that gets channels—and still there's never enough time to read. Sigh.

Meredith, I love this! You didn't kill the metaphor at all—we each might have wounded it, but sometimes you have to push metaphors a bit, to get to something interesting. This idea of internally cleaning *just enough* to make ourselves presentable is really perceptive. Yes, that kind of cleaning ends up constantly wearing on us, because it's never done "right."