Keepin’ It Real

Let’s keep it real.
On my facebook, Unconventional Randomness, on of my mom friends asked if someone were to come into my house at any given time is it clean or messy?

I was honest and have to say 9/10 times it’s a mess. It’s not because I’m lazy. It’s just how we are wired around here. We do just drop things. I am in the LONG process of finding a place for everything. And we are starting to see improvements.
But with a bit more stuff then we have room for. The clutter often takes over. It’s a mess, we clean it up some days. And most days it sits where it lands.

Now there IS a method to our madness. Take this chair in the photo above, for instance. It’s our coat rack. Yes I have a hall closet, but it’s PACKED with Ed’s and my coats. I don’t have room for all the kids coats too. With it being April, one day it’s 30 and windy, the next it’s sunny and 70 so we’ve got 3 different coats per kid going on here.

The rest of the front living room is a mess too. The big stool is full of Mia’s school papers from this week. We do homework and keep simple art supplies in here. We read in this room and just hang out.
Oddly this room is a mess as of this week. I DO try, since this is the first room you see when you come in to keep it somewhat clean…er then you see here.

Now wait, before you think of telling me to purge Mia and Alex’s school papers, I DO! I have this station right behind the front door for back packs to hang, and papers to go… I have file folders at the bottom of those stacks for each kid. Saving the purging for a rainy day… a different rainy day.
The crap on the floor is because I was cleaning out the cabinet. And stopped half way to go to bed. I also don’t have the best timing on my projects either.

But wait… did you notice JUST my bookshelf.

MY bookshelf.

It’s pretty… it used to be COVERED in kids books, packing ALL my books end to end.

NOW they are all MY books. And MY decorations. Can’t wait to get this room picked up a bit better so my bookshelf isn’t the ONLY thing in here that is nice looking.

Kids books… what did I do with them all?

Took this OLD, nasty, chipped paint, white rack. Spray painted it ‘leather brown’ and BOOM. A cute shelf. Up in the loft. Holding ALL the kids books! Perfect!

Now not ALL my rooms look like holy hell.

Our family room is in good shape. AND I can keep it this way, because there is ONE toy table. To the right of the picture. It’s the coffee table. But I put it in the corner of the room. Kids love it. Make a mess. I don’t have to see it right in the middle of the room. I love it. Win win.

Alright, I’m NOT proud of my kitchen right now. BUT I’m keeping it as real as it gets around the McHale house on this post. And we’ve got this issue about once a week. It just gets backed up.

One day, I skip dishes, stack them nicely by the sink, to wash the next day. Busy the next morning, and by day 2 I’ve got dishes, food and randomness ALL the way around my counters.

*Note it’s a mess. YES it’s dirty dishes. But each night the counter is cleaned off, and food is put away.

Let’s head upstairs, shall we?

The loft.

If you know what I’ve been up to, it’s this room.

I took the WHOLE desk apart. Cleaned it. Bagged all the contents of the drawers and cabinets.
Now going back through all the bags putting things away, going through each file. Purging, shredding, and organizing.

The one hutch is now living in the basement, for storage next to the kids tv in their toy room. Perfect.
This hutch is solo. And now the center piece of the desk. The once center floating box piece is now on my art room floor till it gets a home.

I had to cut this carpet piece to fit in there. (4x1 had to get cut) THAT was a bitch of a job. BUT now I’ve got carpet in my loft. And it cost me $0 nada.

*See before picture below.

Alright… had enough? Wait just a bit, I’m not done sharing… let’s see how my love for laundry is going… some of you may need to sit down for this. Others may cheer in the fact that you are not alone…

  I fucking. HATE. laundry.

I’ve gotten my shit together. TWICE since I’ve lived on my own. That would be TWICE in the last 14 years. And “Shit together” as in EVERYTHING but what I was wearing was put away. And NO I don’t enjoy laundry when it’s all done and nice. I don’t enjoy the process when it looks nice. Mess or not. I HATE folding, washing, drying, and ironing is complete bullshit. I’ve had my mom, and friends try to sell me the idea of a wonderful laundry system.

STILL working on that one. Doubt I’ll see it in my lifetime. Unless I’m joining a nudist camp.

NOW I do miss knowing where my favorite sweats are. I do wonder if I own socks. Or more then 4 shirts and my yoga pants. Since I can’t seem to find a DAMN thing in this mess. So it’s to that point where I will spend a WHOLE day hating the process of putting it away. Filling two garbage bags full of clothes to get rid of. And with in a week it’ll be a mess again.
I. HATE. LAUNDRY.

*Note my husbands clothes are on the top of the closet. His are nice, clean and organized. He does his own laundry. Because I SUCK so badly at this job.

Kids rooms… sigh. Well there is only ONE of me. And too many mess makers in this family. SO for the most part there is a path to get to their beds, in case of an emergency they can escape with out a LEGO injury.

And so in the middle of the night I can escort them BACK to their bed with out ankle breaking swearing at 2 am

Now I DO attempt organization. I do my best to be a Flybaby but understand as much as I’m posting about cleaning, and organizing ALL the time. It’s what I do. BUT I do enjoy life. This mess will ALWAYS be here. It has been for the 34.5 years of my life, it can wait another day.

Happy Friday people, keep it real.

JCat McGack