Surfacing

There are clean surfaces in our house again!!

Noble's birthday party was March 9th.
Before that, Mom was in the hospital unexpectedly for several days.  Before that, I had piles of stuff that were FOR the party, so things were starting to get a little crowded.
After the party, it was spring break.
It took 2 days to even bring the party stuff in from the cars...and then it sat in the office, right where I put it.  I kept thinking I'd get to it, but you know how that goes--I would rather play with the kids than clean (I'm totally mellowing in my old age, I know).
And so, it sat.
And as is so often the case around here, that mess grew.  It spread all across the office, through the kitchen, and all through the house.
Our room?  Ugh.  I made the fabric garland and left the stuff on the dresser thinking I'd make a second one.  There went the dresser.  My desk was covered in work and stuff and scraps from t-shirt projects and whatnot...I haven't sat at my desk in well over a week.  Then came the laundry.  Last Wednesday I decided to sort the laundry and get it done, so I had piles of dirty clothes in our room and the hallway (like, some touched and you had to step on dirty clothes piles--it was so "Hoarders").  Of course, once I got the laundry out our spring break kicked into high gear and the laundry. continued. to. sit.
And grow.
You know what happened next, right?  Since the laundry was on the floor in here and his party was on the floor in there, I didn't sweep.  Blech. And there was no point in dusting, since you couldn't see most of the surfaces, anyway, right?
And why clean the bathroom when all 4 of us were home for 5 days, just messing it up again?
Oh, our house.
It was August/December/May dirty--the kind of messy AND dirty that makes it hard to get things done.
It was the kind of dirty that drove me out of our bedroom every morning in search of a calm, uncluttered place to do my quiet time (have been hit or miss with it!) and work.
It was the kind of dirty that made me irritable and unfocused and anxious.

Once we got to the end of spring break, I was counting the days until I'd be able to take a couple of hours and tackle the mess.  Yesterday, thank God!, was the day.

I had some pictures at the end of this post, but you know what my house looks like when it's clean.  I *should* have taken pictures of the dirty!

Why did I write this?  Because I know I'm not the only one with messes who grow.  And I absolutely HATE the feeling of being crowded and discouraged and overwhelmed by my mess.  And I know that some of you struggle with this, too...and it can affect everything.  My kids got to the point where they would get toys out in the office and just leave them on the floor--why not, I had a big mess in there!

This is why everything in our home needs a place, and when we get something out or bring something in, we take a second to put it in its place.  It's a little work to get to that point, but being there can be the difference between a house that's usually company-ready and a house that would embarrass me if someone popped in.  This is what works for us (okay, for me...my family enjoys being messy in small doses!).

*Big thanks to Heather for picking up Kayci AGAIN so I could have extra time to work!  :)