Mommy Struggles: Living Up To Our Mother's Expectations

My house is a mess.It seems that I clean up one room and the next gets messy. Then magically, while the house is getting dirty, a mountainous pile of laundry has appeared out of thin air.It's a never ending battle!Yet, week after week, while still working on my shops Blu-83 Vintage and Dear Alice Company , I some how manage to tidy up and have a functional home.Many times when my mom decides to come over, isn't up to her standards? I get the "you just let dishes pile up like this?" or the infamous "why are all these clothes just piled up and not hung up?"While washing dishes the other day, I began to contemplate as I was overwhelmed by the amount of dishes and mess in our kitchen. Do you ever stop to think, "How on earth did my mother do all this?"My mom was not a stay-at-home mom my entire childhood, but worked off and on outside the home. Our house was almost always clean. Everything had a place, clothes were folded and put away and our sink hardly ever over flowed with dishes.Then I took it back one more step, my Grandma Alice, my mom's mom...her house was never ever dirty (well until she had 4 grand-kids...my cousins messed it up for me LOL). My mom has always told me stories of how my grandma kept a clean home, cooked and worked as a nurse with 3 kids and without the conveniences of today. (I don't know about y'all but my calendar on my phone is a lifesaver and pick-up grocery service too. I don't think they had that in the 60's)They didn't have a dishwasher, nor did my grandfather ever help out (because that was "women's work" to him).Sometimes I can't help, but wonder am I doing this right? Could I be doing more? I know I strive to keep a clean home, but let's be honest ladies....it's down right exhausting sometimes!Are there any mom's out there who can relate?