I only have 2 kids and this is how my house looks 95% of the time and it makes my skin crawl. I can't stand it! I want to light a match and blow it up sometimes:
Before kids? Organized. After kids? Hoarders.
I'm constantly picking up the house, doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen, driving to and from school, running errands, making food, feeding and dressing little people, etc. I can barely squeeze in 2 showers a week (eh, TMI?) and some sewing. I can barely answer an email or even a text... or even write a blog post... or keep the house picked up in between it all!
So how on earth do you keep the house always tidy? Do you stay up till midnight every night organizing? I'm embarrassed to have people over because it's just a bomb all the time. Do you never sit down and constantly run around putting things where they belong?
I know we've outgrown our house - I've run out of creative places to stash toys (under the ottoman, in baskets everywhere, behind chairs, in the basement), the kitchen table is covered in stuff, I can barely close some of our kitchen cupboards because they're so full, there's barely enough room for the clothes to be put away in dressers, we don't have a linen closet - so all of the towels sit in stacks. Coat closet? overflowing. Bins for shoes? overflowing. basement stairs? stacks of stuff. It's horrible, horrible, horrible. But guess what? My sewing space? Organized. Honestly. It really is.
I either have too much stuff or not enough space, or maybe a combo of both. But I have to make it work somehow!
Most of my friend's houses? Tidy. HOW? Mine? Not Tidy. What am I doing wrong?
It baffles me. I just. Can't. Figure. It. Out!!!!
Help! Any tips or tricks or ideas? ... and thanks in advance for any advice you have ;o)
You are the mother of two young children....your house isn't supposed to look like it did prior to children. It won't be this way long, enjoy those toys and clutter, relish their little arms around your neck while sitting in a rocking chair reading a book instead of organizing. You'll have plenty of time for sewing and organizing in a few years. I've been where you are and was given the same advice. Now, as an empty-nester, I fill my days with sewing. While a mother of two young children, my house was lived in, sewing was accomplished during afternoon naps and if any organization took place it was with the help of little hands!
ReplyDeleteAwww, thanks Renee! Since Paige has come along, I've been able to enjoy the baby phase so much more the 2nd time around (plus she's a happier baby). I guess no matter how many kids you have, at any age there are always toys seeping out of every crack and crevice. I'm sure I'll slowly be able to organize again. I have moved 19 times in my life - so I'm used to always sorting through items in preparation for a move. Maybe this is what happens when you live in one place for 7 years?!? Thanks again for the kind words!
DeleteThis post made me laugh... BECAUSE based on your last post I thought you WERE one of the people who somehow managed to have a clean and tidy house with little people. I mean, first off, you took the time to fix his lampshade AND take a picture of it - with a bed that was made in the photo. AMAZING. Way more than I can accomplish in any given day. :)
ReplyDeleteHave you heard this "Cleaning the house with small children is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos". I think I have just more or less given up. We keep the main level of the house more or less organized.... and the rest of it just is. Right before we put the kids to bed tonight Owen pulled all the books off the bookshelf (again) and pulled all the diapers out (again). I just left them there, upstairs where I can't see them. Because he is going to do it again tomorrow. And I'm okay with that.
HA! I've never heard that Oreo phrase before. too funny and so true! We live in a thrift store over here with random crap everywhere. The kids room's upstairs are actually tidy... it's the main living space that we're always in that's a "high holders nest" (whatever a High Holder is and why it lives in a nest? but my Mom uses that phrase all the time.) And our basement is just a collection place for all sorts of weirdness. SIGH. Someday it'll come together.
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