Hotel rooms are always neat and clean – vacuumed, dusted, and shiny. The bed is always made. The linens are always fresh. With or without an ocean view they are almost always welcoming and calm.
As much as I try to recreate that serenity at home, somehow our bedroom falls short. Ever-present in our room is a basket of laundry waiting to be folded. You can usually find a tower or two of books that we want to read but haven’t found the time. The kids like to leave little notes on our mirror: Need lunch money, please sign permission slip, can’t find my sneakers… A couple of file folders from work and sheets of electrical plans usually complete my bedroom's decor. Not exactly the picture of serenity.
So by contrast, of course a hotel room is serene and simple - it's meant to be simple. The hotel room is meant to provide you with a temporary resting place as you continue on your journey. You can’t grow attached to it because it’s temporary. It’s always clean because you are not meant to stay. It’s a respite from home, a place to escape your life for a brief interval. It is plain vanilla and you only get out of it what you put into it.
Compare that to your room at home and there you’ll find the key: it's home. It’s yours, it’s where you build your memories, and where you’re surrounded by the things that mean the most to you. It may not be perfect. Maybe it needs a fresh coat of paint and you should probably fold the laundry once in a while, but still you should appreciate it for what it is: Its home.
That’s not to say that hotel rooms have no value or that you shouldn’t enjoy a little plain vanilla once in a while. Exactly the opposite: You need a little plain vanilla sometimes to help you appreciate real home cooked flavor.
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Another good post! Your bedroom sounds like my bedroom, though mine is also full of oversized kid toys too! My one secret to sanity (based on recent advice) is to always make my bed. Once that happens, it prompts me to straighten up the rest of the room too. Then, there's the appearance of serenity! I keep telling myself...love the mess...there's no place like home!
ReplyDeleteHaving recently traveled without family, I agree with your assessment that there is no place like home. Though it is nice to have the non-shared space afforded by the hotel room- and i don't have a jaccuzzi tub at home!- the hotel room feels exactly what it is:empty.Viva the post-its, old report cards and vacation pictures!
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