At My Wit's End.....

I'm at a point with the mess in this house that I'm about ready to lose it.

My main issue is - you guessed it - toys around the house. The girls can positively trash the entire downstairs in less than an hour flat...and then when it comes time to help clean it up...guess what? They whine, bellyache, and goof around until I'm ready to tear out my hair.

I've reached a point where I'm not even sure what to do anymore. Several months ago, most of their toys got moved upstairs to live in the playroom and their bedroom (both of which are ALWAYS messy, but that's another battle for another day). With relatively few things downstairs, one would assume that the messes would be minor - HAH! The Playmobil stuff, wooden blocks, play food and dishes, Thomas the Train stuff, felt people, Lego blocks, books, Polly Pockets, wooden castle playset and art supplies all live in the downstairs area of our house. And of course....they get dragged all over the place.

At 3 1/2 and 5 1/2, I firmly believe that the girls can and should be helping to clean up the messes they make.

The problem comes with actually getting them to do it. I've tried making it fun, by playing music and cleaning with them. I've tried making it a game, by setting the timer and seeing if we can get it cleaned up before the timer goes off. I've tried punishments and removal of priviledges. All of these things work for a while, but eventually it reaches a point where it's too much effort and headache to actually get them to help.

I'm ready to tear out my hair here, people. I'm at the end of my rope and looking for suggestions..................................................

.....anyone have any brilliant ideas?

Welcome to my Chaos

I've been doing a lot of cleaning today. This was brought on by the fact that I'm having a friend over for a playdate tomorrow...a friend that I haven't had over before. I'm always pretty self-conscious having a new friend over for the first time....after all...your home says a lot about you.

I used to be particularly concerned with making a "good impression" on other people with my home. These days, I'm a lot more comfy with simply allowing my home to be a reflection of myself.

As I look around my house right now, I can say that what it says about me is pretty accurate. Hm...let's see. It says that I care more about doing stuff with my kids than having an orderly home. It says that I have a hard time throwing things out and that generally I am comfortable with chaos. It also says that I'm a bit of a procrastinator, and not so organized.

The good news, however, is that this particular friend already knows all these things about me.

So welcome to my chaos, girl - the door's open for ya.

The Messes They Make....

A while ago, I decided that, in my quest to simplify my life, I would attempt to make keeping the house clean and tidy easier by shuttling most of the girl's toys upstairs to their room. Now, I knew this meant that their room would likely suffer for it, but since it's not what I consider part of our "public space" I was willing to make the sacrifice. I hate tripping over toys on my way to answer the door when a neighbour drops by unexpectedly, you know? On top of that, what with "officially" starting our homeschooling, I wanted to make my chore list as short as possible, freeing up extra time for more fun and learning.

Looking around at the current mess in my downstairs, I am realizing something very important. The size of the mess actually has very little to do with the NUMBER of toys involved. There may be less things to throw around the downstairs, but all they do is take what IS available, and make an even bigger mess with it. Really, I wonder how that's possible? And yet, looking around my house right now, I absolutely can not deny it.

*sigh*

Guess it's time to start cleaning.

Again.

Working On It

My husband is jumping for joy. My quest for a more organized and clutter-free life has finally, finally led me to the pit of despair basement.

We've got this great room in our basement that's not big enough for anything more than just storage. A long time ago Chris built these great shelves for it - sturdy enough to stow away lots of dead bodies heavy items if need be. The problem with our storage room is that since moving in well over 3 years ago, that room has been the handy-dandy catch-all for everything from bags of outgrown baby clothes to birthday decorations to art projects to all kinds of crap items that we didn't know what to do with. Tell me, people, what's the point of a storage room if it's so full there's no room to actually store anything in it?

Over the years, we've been casually pecking away at it. I move things around, get rid of a tiny bit of stuff, and then stop. A few months later we're always back to the same old place - barely space to put down my feet as I step over boxes and bags and whatever else gets chucked in there.

Our neighbours moved out recently (yes, those neighbours), and before they left, they gave us some great shelving with adjustable tracks. Chris installed those a few days ago, and I spent Friday afternoon working on the storage room. I'm being particularly ruthless in my culling, as I realize that having all this "stuff" hanging around isn't doing us any good. I also spent a great deal of time organizing the things that we are going to keep, and putting them in labeled boxes. Things like craft supplies for the kids, kid painting supplies, gift wrapping supplies, extra stationary, blah blah blah. The room is finally starting to take shape.

I still have a lot of work to do down there, but it finally feels do-able, not the overwhelming torturous task that it's seemed like all these years. It's also so freeing to get rid of "stuff" - I never realized how much it seems to weigh me down. My spirit feels lighter already. And still have a whole lot more to get rid of.

Next stop after the storage room: The workshop.

Maybe. I'm not sure how masochistic I'm feeling this week.

Getting Organized

"Hi, My name is Kelly, and I'm a pack rat."

My hubby and I have had a goal for the last...eesh...3 years? To finally, once and for all, get organized. It's a daunting task, particularly when you both have pack-rat tendencies and two young children.

We've been working on it more than ever lately. I am feeling particularly motivated because I've realized how much time I spend doing housework. WAY more than I'd like. I'm realizing that the more organized and clutter-free we are, the more time I will have for other things, namely homeschooling, which, since Emma turned 5 in April, "officially" starts in September. I don't want to be distracted by the piles in our storage room, or be left unable to find those really great worksheets I printed off the week before.

I've given up on the idea that I'm ever going to be one of those uber-organized, super keen clean freaks. It's just not in my nature. And frankly, that's not the way I want to live. I like a certain amount chaos in my life...I find it strangely comforting. But I also hate spending hours and hours every week on unnecessary tasks as well. So it's a fine balance that I'm after.

Earlier this week I started rummaging through my kitchen cupboards to unload all those unnecessary things that I've had stashed away for far too long. Things like that travel coffee mug that's been missing it's lid since our last move 3 1/2 years ago; the casserole dish lid that doesn't have a matching dish; the storage containers with no lids, and the lids with no containers; the non-recyclable yogurt and margarine containers that were piling up and piling up, the extra components to the food processor that died a year and a half ago...the list goes on. I was ruthless. Anything without a practical purpose in my life right now, or in the immediate forseeable future, was removed. I still have a couple of cupboards left to go, but for the most part, I've made a lot of headway in terms of de-cluttering and getting organized...at least in one area of my house. Now to tackle the rest!

(And yes, honey, the basement is on the list of "Areas to De-Clutter and Organize", I promise. I'm making my way there, even if it's at a snail's pace. A 34 year disease of pack rat-ism and disorganization certainly isn't cured overnight. But I'm getting there, I promise!!)

Martha Who????

Yesterday I entered the world of bread baking. Now, to be fair, I didn't do the WHOLE thing myself. For my first attempt, I started by making the dough in my handy-dandy breadmaker. That thing gets so much use, we wear them out at about a rate of one per year.

Since I am a happy little stay at home mom, I figure that making my own bread is a task I'd like to conquer. I can add it to my "mommy resume", along with kissing boo-boos, making kick-ass banana bread, and successfully scaling "laundry mountain". The list is long, my friends...the list is long.

So I made the dough in the breadmaker. The ultimate goal, of course, is to do the whole thing from scratch, but I decided to start out easy for my first attempt. After letting the dough rise in the breadmaker once, I kneaded it out again, plunked it into the pan, and waited nervously for the second rising. Success! It rose without any trouble at all. I popped it into the oven and baked it, and it came out looking like this:



Beautiful! If I do say so myself. Now, the only thing left is the taste test, which will come today at lunchtime. I can only hope that it tastes as great as it looks!