I have been thinking about this post a lot lately. I find that when I talk about something or "say" it out loud that I feel better and I can actually accomplish things. Back in November of last year, I officially became a full-time SAHM. I have been very happy about this change in our lives. I have had more time for my family and definitely more time for socializing with all of you wonderful women. I have been so thankful for that, you have no idea.
It's almost coming up on a full year with this new found freedom. We have made adjustments in schedules here and there and things are good, but I keep feeling like something is still missing. I finally came to the conclusion and realized that it's me. I need to get organized with EVERYTHING. I used to be an organized FREAK in my youth. I cleaned my room everyday, made my bed every morning. My dresser drawers were all properly neat and folded, my closet was organized, my school work was always done. That's just how it was. Remember, I grew up in Warden where there is nothing to do and no where to go, so I had A LOT of time on my hands. My mom kept our house CRAZY clean. You could take a white glove through our house and find not a speck of dust. She also worked outside the home very long hours, sometimes nights. She still always had the house perfect. She was always so tired.
When I got my first apartment, it was still the same nice neat tidy place of my own. After we got married, still very clean and tidy. Then came the kids. I can't believe how much CRAP you accumulate when you have kids. This is when things began to snowball I think. When Jacob was about a year old I went to work part-time and I did this until about a year ago. I was definitely not my mom. I had a hard time keeping up with the daily stuff like dishes and laundry that all of the extra deep cleaning always got put off. I learned to live in my house even if it wasn't perfectly clean. I learned to play with the kids instead of fold the laundry. Don't get me wrong, my house isn't like totally messy and unlivable, it's just not the way I would like it to be, completely clean and organized. I let all of the extra stuff go because I didn't feel like I had the time to do it all when I was working, now, I have no excuse. So I have been looking around the house and finding that I can throw out over half of the toys that are CLUTTERING all of the floor of both of the kids' bedrooms, I have bags of clothes that need to be given away or donated. We have been trying to paint and redecorate. I have always HATED the closet in my bedroom. It is so tiny. Someday, in my next house, I will have a HUGE, GRAND, master closet. Kayla and Kelsie are in one room and there is just no room. There's the catch. There COULD be room if it was clean and organized. Anytime I don't want something in the house or I want to get rid of something I just put it in the garage. Our garage is so scary right now. I feel bad for Kevin because he has no garage anymore. It has been taken over by nursery bassinets and car seats and old strollers and tubs and tubs of kids clothes and just CLUTTER. It has gotten way out of hand.
I also realized that if I had the house situated and organized the way I want it to be that I would have more time to organize the other things in my life, like scripture reading and exercising, and a better more efficient bed time and morning routine. The thing is that I KNOW all of this needs to be done. I NEED to get their rooms clean and organized and de-cluttered, I just get overwhelmed when I walk in the room. I'm like "Oh I'll just do it later." Um, it's been almost a year of me staying home and it's still not done, but I am determined that now that we are back to school and we are getting to some sort of normality after summer that I will be able to get all of this stuff done.
There I said it out loud so maybe now it'll get done. It might help if I wasn't blogging, huh.
If you have any ideas or suggestions for me on where to start or how to start or what works for you, I would love to hear it!
It's almost coming up on a full year with this new found freedom. We have made adjustments in schedules here and there and things are good, but I keep feeling like something is still missing. I finally came to the conclusion and realized that it's me. I need to get organized with EVERYTHING. I used to be an organized FREAK in my youth. I cleaned my room everyday, made my bed every morning. My dresser drawers were all properly neat and folded, my closet was organized, my school work was always done. That's just how it was. Remember, I grew up in Warden where there is nothing to do and no where to go, so I had A LOT of time on my hands. My mom kept our house CRAZY clean. You could take a white glove through our house and find not a speck of dust. She also worked outside the home very long hours, sometimes nights. She still always had the house perfect. She was always so tired.
When I got my first apartment, it was still the same nice neat tidy place of my own. After we got married, still very clean and tidy. Then came the kids. I can't believe how much CRAP you accumulate when you have kids. This is when things began to snowball I think. When Jacob was about a year old I went to work part-time and I did this until about a year ago. I was definitely not my mom. I had a hard time keeping up with the daily stuff like dishes and laundry that all of the extra deep cleaning always got put off. I learned to live in my house even if it wasn't perfectly clean. I learned to play with the kids instead of fold the laundry. Don't get me wrong, my house isn't like totally messy and unlivable, it's just not the way I would like it to be, completely clean and organized. I let all of the extra stuff go because I didn't feel like I had the time to do it all when I was working, now, I have no excuse. So I have been looking around the house and finding that I can throw out over half of the toys that are CLUTTERING all of the floor of both of the kids' bedrooms, I have bags of clothes that need to be given away or donated. We have been trying to paint and redecorate. I have always HATED the closet in my bedroom. It is so tiny. Someday, in my next house, I will have a HUGE, GRAND, master closet. Kayla and Kelsie are in one room and there is just no room. There's the catch. There COULD be room if it was clean and organized. Anytime I don't want something in the house or I want to get rid of something I just put it in the garage. Our garage is so scary right now. I feel bad for Kevin because he has no garage anymore. It has been taken over by nursery bassinets and car seats and old strollers and tubs and tubs of kids clothes and just CLUTTER. It has gotten way out of hand.
I also realized that if I had the house situated and organized the way I want it to be that I would have more time to organize the other things in my life, like scripture reading and exercising, and a better more efficient bed time and morning routine. The thing is that I KNOW all of this needs to be done. I NEED to get their rooms clean and organized and de-cluttered, I just get overwhelmed when I walk in the room. I'm like "Oh I'll just do it later." Um, it's been almost a year of me staying home and it's still not done, but I am determined that now that we are back to school and we are getting to some sort of normality after summer that I will be able to get all of this stuff done.
There I said it out loud so maybe now it'll get done. It might help if I wasn't blogging, huh.
If you have any ideas or suggestions for me on where to start or how to start or what works for you, I would love to hear it!
5 Thoughts:
You know what works for me? Giving myself a window of time to work on a project.
I've been totally dejunking, and instead of getting everything done I will say: "Today I'm cleaning out the downstairs toys" (or kadens room or whatever) and give myself a window of time to work. Maybe an hour or two? What I get done, I get done. That way it doesn't feel so overwhelming.
Doing a little at a time works so much better for me, and I don't get burned out.
I am definately not one to give much advice on this, since I've got to get busy myself. I will agree with you though that saying it outloud, or in writing, gets one motivated. I'm starting with the toyclosets and toyboxes, games, etc.. I can't believe how many games we have that have lost pieces.
Hannah's room used to be such a disaster that it completely stressed me out to even go in there. After de-junking in there, it made a huge difference, but you're so right kids accumulate a lot of CRAP!
We have de-junked it a couple more times since then. For me that's the problem though. Staying on top of it is a tough one.
I really like Heather's suggestion of giving yourself a window of time, and when time's up, you're done. Definitely would make it less overwhelming.
Yeah, I'm the last person to give advice on this type of stuff. I'm the queen of later. Maybe you and I can start together!
All of your suggestions have really helped. I think I will get into a routine of de-junking every few months or so. I will try and start giving myself that window that Heather suggested and do a little at a time. I'm ready to start! Join me Lindsay!
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