Bless This Mess: My House is an Unorganized Disaster!

I am a librarian by trade. Therefore, one would think this would make me an organized person in life. I mean I catalog and arrange books for a large portion of my day. I get annoyed when I look at the shelves of my library and they are out of order and a mess. But unfortunately, these awesome work skills just do not seem to translate into my everyday life. Looking for the mom who lost the party invitation? Look no further. How about going out to buy new school shoes because you can’t find your daughter’s other shoe? Been there, done that. Oh why do I have three bags of opened quinoa in my pantry? I keep buying more because I forget that I already have some. Meal planning? Definitely not happening here. I am at Whole Foods pretty much 4 days a week. The cashiers know my kids.

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There was a time when we had a cleaning lady. Every two weeks, I looked forward to the day where my house was spotless and clean. Now I’m the cleaning lady. The laundry is stacked in piles in the kitchen, bedrooms, hallway and in front of the washer. I have big plans of folding it all and putting it away but by the time I get to this, the kids are asleep which means I can’t put the clothes in their room. The living room floor gets cleaned only when someone spills something (which is pretty often actually) or when we have company coming. My dining room table has become a landing pad for all sorts of stuff: school papers, receipts, cleaning stuff for the floor, paper towels, bags, probably some bubbles, etc.

We built a playroom about 2 years ago in hopes to contain the toys from spilling into my living room. It worked for like 5 minutes. My living room has toys all over. Once a week I have to move the couch to see what has gathered under it. My dogs love when I do this because there are usually lots of crumbs and food along with toys, shoes, socks and underwear. (Yeah, my kids like to take off all their clothes the second they walk into the house.) Then I take the toys and put them back in the playroom. But the playroom looks like someone just took all the toys and threw them in the air and let them land. We have lots of organization containers in there but the kids don’t see the value of them as much as I do.

I’m not sure if this messiness is a product of having kids but I do know my house is a wreck on more days than it’s not. I would love for it to look like something out of Domino magazine, but I don’t think that will happen for quite some time. So, I’ve tried to embrace it. As the saying goes, “Bless this mess.” My husband loves to say that one day I will miss the mess because it will mean the kids are either grown or gone. I’m not so sure I agree. I know people say that you can clean when the kids go to bed, but by that time I’m just too exhausted.

In the mean time, I suggest that if you plan on stopping over unexpectedly, be prepared to see two small dogs barking and eating food from the floor, two girls jumping on the couch and a living room full of toys strewn about. We can move the crap on the dining room table to the other end and enjoy a glass of wine while your kid gets in on the insanity. I promise my bathroom is clean, though.

Is your house Martha Stewart perfect or more of a blessed mess?

13 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks for sharing your story! I feel the same way! My seven year old plays sports. By the time we get home from the playground which is sometimes late at night, we don’t feel like cleaning. His room has toys strewn about everywhere from his birthday party from 2 weeks ago! Weekends are hectic with birthday parties, baby showers, and weddings! Seriously, who wants to clean on our three day Memorial Day weekend?! Maybe the following weekend. LOL!

  2. Blessed Mess! I try but I have two tornadoes behind me making messes as I clean. It’s a never ending battle to keep clean. I know when they are older it will get easier.

  3. My house was like that once, not any more. I did a massive decluttering and now it is peaceful and easy to clean. Sure the kids make a mess every day but it is contained and they are part of the team and put their stuff away. If you get rid of about half of that stuff you’ll probably have an easier time – and stop shopping every day of the week, for goodness sakes! Your budget will thank you too!

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