After many years of living in free company housing with domestic help laid on, I became all "house-proud" after I had returned to Canberra in 1985 and spent a small fortune on renovating the previously tenanted house.
I would get heart palpitations if friends came in without removing their shoes, and if they did so in the hallway while holding themselves up with one sweaty hand against the wall, I would go into convulsions.
Maybe it was a throwback to my German days when it was customary to have a "Gute Stube", a 'best room', which was set aside for receiving visitors and displaying the family's best furnishings and other status symbols. A very anally retentive thing which probably lost us the war.
These days I'm quite at ease in a house which is just clean enough to be healthy but dirty enough to be comfortable. So come right in, keep your shoes on and by all means steady yourself with one hand against the wall as you inspect the mementos on the mantelpiece.
Noticed the 'Get well' cards? They're there to make unexpected guests think we've been unwell and unable to clean up. Works every time! ☺
