Picture this

Boxes piled behind the couch that separates my living room from my dining room.

Camping gear piled next to the door to take to the storage unit.

Laundry couch full of clean clothes.

Bedroom floor full of dirty ones.

A floor coated with toys.

Last night's dishes stacker precariously high in the sink.

A daughter in nothing but panties.

A son in nothing but a diaper.

Both kids are curled up on the couch watching Mulan way too loud.

A dog whining on the floor that she's not allowed to chase the cat that is perched on the back of the chair I type from.

Bathrooms that need to be scrubbed.

Bedrooms that need to be straightened. And my bedroom needs an overhaul.

Trash that needs to be carried out is sacked but still piled by the trashcan.

And finally, a kitchen floor needs to be scrubbed -- spot mopping won't do it this time.



Now that you have that picture firmly planted in your head, can you explain to me why I'm not doing anything about it? I really have no good excuse.... lol


But it is the reason I'm not blogging today. Hopefully by this evening I'll have at least a picture or two to share and will be triumphant in my quest to rid my house of the mess. :D




Oh, before I go I will share pictures. I finally have a camera again and while these aren't top notch they do make me happy. :)

She wrote her name all by herself! I had to help her remember how to spell it, but she did all the pencil (er, crayon) work herself!


A face I've missed very very much.


And finally, Alex has become a major cheeser recently. :) Just look at those eyebrows!

Cleaning Out

I am a packrat. I keep things that I just can't bring myself to get rid of. I keep things that people gave me so that I don't feel badly about getting rid of them or to remind me of them. I keep things that I know belong to something and think that one day I'll find what it goes with. I can't bring myself to get rid of toys that the kids have, no matter how little they play with them anymore. I live a life of clutter. And I'm disliking it more and more every day. It keeps my house from being clean. It keeps me in a constant state of "pick it up". And I just can't keep going like this.

Saturday, May 23, my church is hosting a yard sale for the Guyana mission field. Every penny we earn will go there. I love the work they do there, and want to donate my time and belongings.

So today I begin cleaning things out. I'm cleaning out the kids toys. The closets. The garage. On top of the fridge. Etc. My plan is to half all of it. Well, except the kids' closets. Their clothes can stay. But mine can't. Neither can Chris'. He will have to help and sort through his things. If I gave away half of everything we own, there would be so much less time spent cleaning and so much more just enjoying being here! I read once that we only use 20% of the things we own. Well, I'm not giving away 80% of my belongings ... but 50% (or close to it) isn't a bad start. I know that this process will take a while ... but I have almost a month! And that's not bad. :)

Why is it that....

My definition of clean and Chris' are so wildly different?

On the way home I called and asked him if the house was clean... I just needed to know so that I could be prepared for whatever I walked into. He said that the bedroom had one pile of clothes that needed to be put away, but that otherwise it was all in decent shape. He said that even the laundry was all clean. Ummm...yeah, right.

Kitchen: Dishes from 2 weeks in the sink. Floor covered in things he's dropped. Cabinets, table, and island all look like they haven't been washed off in several days.

Living room: No trash on the floor, but it's covering the couch. Middle of the floor is clear. No toys. But there are little pieces from where he's been trying to repair the 360 all over the floor and coffee table -- because he doesn't have kids that would eat those little pieces. Surely not.

Bedroom: A MOUNTAIN of laundry on the floor next to my side of the bed. Dirty clothes pile on his side of the bed.

Bathroom: Apparently he's been feeding the cat in our bathroom because there were pieces of cat food in there that were covered in ANTS. The trash hasn't been taken out since I left town. And he still hasn't retrieved my pearls from where Kairi "dropped" them down my sink -- so that sink can't be used. His sink is coated in toothpaste and hair from shaving. Oh, and the toilet is DISGUSTING. :-X

Garage: He told me he straightened it. What he meant was, he dug through boxes, left them open, and then shoved them against another wall. And the laundry being done really meant that what he needed to be wear was washed and everything else was left in a pile next to the laundry baskets (you know, instead of IN them), and they reeked of cat pee.



My house is a disaster. I'm sick just thinking about having to clean it.