Saturday, January 22, 2011

not so organized.

I think some of you may have gotten the wrong idea about me. 
I keep getting emails and comments from people about how super organized I am. 
Yeah... not always so much. 
I do love to organize. I love to be organized. I love when things are clean and clutter free and look organized. 
But that's not really how my life looks. 

Do you have one of those friends that always has a clean and organized house? 
She has children. Even small children. 
But for some reason, her house doesn't look like she has children. 
You go to her house and end up just feeling bad about yourself and your messy house?? 
I'm not that friend. I promise.
I took some pictures on our snow day to prove it... 

(The egg carton is empty. I get freaked out when people leave things that should be refrigerated just sitting out.)

 The drop zone when you walk in the back door. Lovely, isn't it? 

The toy room, across from the table/drop zone. It tends to spread. 

 The Hoosier cabinet in the dining room. (Most of this is Corey's cattle stuff. I've gotten in trouble for moving his stuff.)

We eat at the other end of the table, so this end tends to get a bit cluttered.  

3 laundry baskets. Clean, waiting to be folded.  

More clean laundry, mine, mostly folded, just needing to be put away. (Actually, Corey was just telling me the other day how much he loves it when I do this. Or not.) 

I wish I had a picture of my desk at school. You generally can't see the top of it. The kind of place where I know exactly where things are (Most of the time. Still can't find my fall DRA's...) but no one else wants to even attempt to look for things. ("Um... where is your conference schedule??") 

Yes, I love to organize. 
Yes, I love to be organized. 
But generally, my life looks pretty unorganized. 
There is some organization underneath all the chaos, but sometimes you have to look pretty hard. 
Would I love to have a clean, clutter-free, always organized house? Yes. 
But we have 3 small kids and I work full time. And I would rather be lazy and watch TV and relax in the evenings after the kids go to bed.
So my house looks like this a lot of the time. 

A sweet friend used to share this quote: 
If you're coming to see me, come anytime. 
If you're coming to see my house, call first. 

Come anytime. 
I promise you won't feel bad about yourself.  :)

11 comments:

Doug and Sarah said...

Really appreciate you keeping it "real", especially since I'm reading this as I take a break from cleaning our house!

Hanni said...

I just love you Amy! You would not feel bad about yourself at my house either. When we get past all this snow we need to reconnect in person. I have miss you dear friend. I never ceased to be amazed at how similar we are. My house looks a lot like yours except I have two huge tubs of Christmas decorations still in the dining room waiting to be put away and I have had a few more snow days than you. :)

Aaron and Shannon said...

This made me smile! I feel like a bad mom/person when I see some peoples houses or pictures. But then I remember that I work full-time and have 2 kids under the age of almost 4! :) I do my best...but sometimes life is just life!

Brittany said...

now, i feel normal:) ha! thanks for sharing!!!!

Beki - TheRustedChain said...

Girrrrrl, this makes me so very very happy. Very.

The Rakows said...

i stay at home, have one 2 year old daughter, keep 2 other kids (another 2 year old and a 5 month old) and am about to have baby girl #2... my house is cluttery and disorganized (but i can generally find everything)... i feel accomplished if you can see my kitchen table and the living room gets vacuumed. :) and, ya know what? :) some day, we won't have the little toys, sippy cups, or cute horse drawings "cluttering" our house, and we will miss it... :) embrace what you have because it's worth it :) and thanks for making me feel "normal," too :) i love that about you :)

Melissa said...

I LOVE that quote! Its amazing how much I love to organize and how happy it makes me, yet how unorganized my life is??!!!

Cheryl said...

You are much braver than I am posting your messy pics. :) Thanks for being real. I love that quote. :)
I have Christmas decor still waiting to be put away, a messy basement, and I cannot control the messy bedrooms. I just developed chore charts to encourage my kids to help out in the cleaning and they actually are enjoying it.

Holly said...

YOU are an amazing mother
it all looked practically perfect to me!

Danielle said...

You crack me up!! Thanks for sharing. I always tell people not to write in my dust :)

jennifer said...

I feel the same way - could I have a cleaner house? Yes. Would I rather check my email and blogs or watch a show or read at night? Absolutely. So I do :) The kids don't seem to mind and luckily neither does the husband. Organization aspirations will come to fruition some day when you don't have so much stuff on your plate!