Order from Chaos - De-cluttering and Battling the Laundry Beast

Some days I think I can do this. Other days I wonder Can I do this? Still others it's I can't do this!
 I was the girl who never left home without her makeup, who was 15 minutes early for everything, and who always had a glib answer to every question. Now? Well, now I am perpetually late by 30 minutes, and I can never find my keys or my makeup bag (where IS that darn thing anyway?) If you ask me a question while I am doing anything other than sitting still, you might receive a blank stare for a response. Think Huh? and you've got it. You might ask "Why? What happened?" Well, I'll tell you.

Take a house. Add 2 dogs, 2 active boys, 2 cats, and an organizationally challenged husband. Turn it upside down, shake, and add 5 college classes and an ambitious SuperMom. Flip it right side up again. What do you have? Chaos. Complete and utter chaos.

Let me say now that I am the QUEEN of list making. I have chore charts, checklists, budget sheets, organizers. I have read and clipped articles about keeping things tidy, ideas for de-cluttering, cute plans for having the perfectly handled home. I bought a book called The House That Cleans Itself. I'm still waiting for it to start. I SO miss being organized.

Sometimes it makes me C-R-A-Z-Y. Especially when I read about bleached floors, handy little baskets, and pretty kids all in a row. Life is not how I pictured it. Not always how I want it either. But then I look around. Yes, there is clutter - but it is MY clutter. The drawings plastered on the refrigerator, the shoes I keep tripping over because my 6 yr old refuses to stop kicking them off willy-nilly. Papers piled on the table beside the computers. Toys all over the playroom. And laundry. Oh my God the laundry. Thank you Lord for my mother, who apparently enjoys laundry - or there would never be clean clothes. Seriously, there wouldn't. At the rate we go through them, I can't get them washed and hung up before they are in baskets, on the floor, in the hamper, or wherever the boys randomly drop them.




Before



After





The Books are Taking Over



All of these things are signs my loved ones are near me. Yes, I am still fighting the battle. In between homework, projects, and hastily pulled together dinners, I grab whatever is nearest and move it. Usually it is a shuffle from clutter on the table or counter to some out of sight drawer, but at least it's moving. Slowly. I have this fabulous plan - house is tidy, dinner on the table at 6 every night. Life moving like clockwork. Being the Mom who bakes treats for you class, who sews your costumes, and has fun up her sleeve all the time. You hear experts say you can't be SuperMom. I say why not? I'm not there yet, but by golly I will give it my best. I may be holding on to my sense of humor with both hands, but as long as teeth are brushed, clothes are clean, there is some form of reasonable food, and my kids are laughing, I am content.

Or at least I'm trying to be.