Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,
Alhamdulillah, I am a woman. I love to have things orderly....I probably mentioned that before.
I am trying to decide whether my desire to have a nice home makes me materialistic? Is wanting to have a nice life in this world a bad thing, even though I know that it is only a passing thing? Allahu Alim.
I mean...is it okay to want to have nice things? After prayers, fasts, dhikr, dua, Qur´an, and keeping the home clean, is it okay to want to make sure that things aren´t only clean, but also attractive? Is it wrong to want to surround myself with things that make me smile? Snow white mouldings and cabinets? Smooth painted wood surfaces? Hardwood floors? Pretty fabrics in toile and stripes?
I want to make sure that my daughter grows up in a beautiful home. That doesn´t mean that things have to be expensive or even new...but they should look new (that´s why we have steel wool for the pots and pans, right?!?!?)...and they should be spotless and clean.
I don´t like it when paint starts to chip...that´s a sign that something needs to be repainted, inshaAllah and alhamdulillah sandpaper and paint are cheap, mashaAllah. I don´t like it when the bottoms of my pots start to blacken--that´s a sign for more steel wool and an overnight soak in the sink with bleach. I don´t like it when my things start to look old. We have all kinds of cleaners and wonderful things that you can buy at any drugstore that can help to preserve what we have...from the cabinets in the kitchen to the wash...alhamdulillah. Even if you do things the old-fashioned way (vinegar...bleach...baking powder...etc.) you can still keep things looking great.
I have probably become this way, because of my mother...yep, Freud´s theories sometimes do work, hehehe.
She doesn´t clean...sometimes I think she doesn´t even know how. The dishes could pile up for over a week. The stove was almost never cleaned and by the time that she moved out during my parents´ divorce, it was impossible (I mean that...) to clean off the char. The carpets hadn´t been cleaned thoroughly in years and although we pulled most of them up, there are still a few left that need to be tossed. There were clothes left over from the 70´s in her closet...not that that´s a bad thing, but they were laying dirty on the floor in there...or packed into garbage bags that never made it to the Salvation Army or Goodwill... Nothing was ever cleaned...until I got to high school and started teaching myself how to do it myself...and then it was sad, because even with my dad to help me, we couldn´t keep up with her mess...she was home the whole day to mess up all of our efforts, subhanAllah...and she wasn´t even trying...that´s just the way she is.
Her new apartment isn´t much better. She´s still a packrat, but I forgive her these days, because she is getting sicker and sicker...there are some things she just can´t help anymore. May Allah subhanahuwata´ala guide her and all my family to the right path. Ameen.
I don´t know if that is an excuse for my obsession with everything looking new and "bright and shiny". Allahu alim. I just hope that in case I am really materialistic that Allah subhanahuwata´ala forgives me. Only He knows what is really in my heart...better than myself even.
Fi aman Allah,
Katherine
