C.H.A.O.S

I think I've posted about this before - but I can't remember ....

I suffer from C.H.A.O.S - Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome

I feel like my house is always a flippin' wreck. I am OVER IT. I have decided I WILL conquer this house. Now, did you know it takes 10 days to break a habit? Meaning if you walk in, set your keys, mail, purse, junk, whatever on your entryway sidetable ~ it eventually gets to be a mess, right?

WELL -- if, for 10 DAYS, you do NOT set ANYTHING on that table, meaning MAKE A CONSCIOUS effort to NOT set ANYTHING on the table, ie: put junk mail in trash, hang keys up, put purse in bedroom (that's where I LIKE to keep mine) .. if you do this for 10 days STRAIGHT - you will break the habit of setting things on the table. Seriously - try it.

SO -- my big 'issue' has always been my laundry. I will sort it in the hallway, put it in the wash, move it to the dryer, etc. Once the dryer is done, I'll move it to the BIG COMFY leather chair and keep rolling with the laundry .... until I literally have a pile SO big that I dread having to sit down and fold it. THEN once I fold it, I'll put it in respective piles and then either LEAVE it in the family room, OR I'll take it to the room it goes in and stack it on a dresser, etc ... which then stays there for however many days/weeks it takes for me to get so fed up that I put it away. HALF the time, I forget about the washer and the clothes end up having to be washed TWICE!

SO -- rewind to 2 Sundays ago .... my darling, sweet friend, Shawn, came over to check on Peanut, who had spent the night and Babe wanted to see how the crown molding installation was coming (WHOLE DIFFERENT POST -- LET ME TELL YOU). She walks in and says "I will be back at 2:30 - CLEAN UP your kitchen before I get back" ... so you know what ... I did. I had it not quite spotless, but clean. Was it bad that her hubby says 'Well, you know, opposites attract, maybe that's why y'all are BFF' ... he's right ... ALL my BFFs are clean freaks. BTW, she didn't even bring me a prize for having my kitchen clean -- maybe my prize was having a clean kitchen!

ETA: Shawn was NOT b-yotchy when asking me to clean my kitchen. It was encouraging, more like a challenge. This girl has helped me clean my house more times than she probably has cared to (and so as my other BFF, Amber - do y'all see a pattern here??). She is constantly telling me how cute my house is and that EVERYTHING HAS A PLACE, EVERY PLACE HAS A THING (tell yourself that while you cleaning -- and the place may just be the GARBAGE or GOODWILL). Keeping my house clean is a MAJOR challenge for me ~ so I'm lucky to be surrounded by girlfriends that care enough ABOUT me to help me and encourage me and just not come over b/c they can't handle it. Now don't get me wrong, my house is not a pig sty - I just seem to always have crap everywhere. I dream of the day they can stop in and it is CLEAN ... and it's coming SOON, I just know it. I've conquered the kitchen (been over 10 days) and I WILL conquer the laundry/hallway situation.

Let me tell y'all what .... I have made sure my kitchen was clean every night before I go to bed. Big Daddy helps me SOMETIMES, but mostly it is me. I love love love it. LOVE IT.

Sooooo, THIS past Sunday, I get word that we are going to have a visitor on Thursday. One that I KNOW for a fact is a clean freak (WHAT THE HECK!?!!?) -- so I decide "HA! I'm going to have my house so clean, she'll have to go check the address out front!" I start working on the laundry and decide to really CLEAN the laundry room. You have to walk through the laundry room from the garage, if it's open, and then into the house. I had 'do not dry or I will die' clothes on top of the washer, crap everywhere ... I started cleaning that and making piles. I did one load of laundry - wash, dry, fold, PUT AWAY. Hmmm, that was easy. I work through all the piles, all the while, completely FINISHING the laundry. It didn't take me that long either. SO I then decide that I'm not going to make piles of laundry anymore. I'm going to just do that load - completely, and then start the next one. NOT having the chaos in the hallway was enough for me to realize this is what works FOR ME.

I do not have room for a sorting laundry bin, however, I try to do one load of laundry per day. I put my kids dirty clothes in laundry basket IN the laundry room. I may put a white/darks sorter in my daughter's closet b/c she has the room for that. When I'm doing a load, I just go through the basket and pull out what needs to be washed. It pretty much always stays full though (sad sad sad). This is the hallway now and has been since Sunday. It USED to be lined with piles and piles of dirty clothes.

This is my laundry room ~ I faux finished my cabinets myself - LOVE them - AND I made that chalkboard on the back of the door. It's not a huge area, but it's less for me to keep clean!! I have SO enjoyed walking in every day and not tripping over dirty clothes, etc.

Ahhhh ... so that's my boring blog post for the day. Maybe not so boring to some of you, I'm sure, but this is my life.