So once you have what you wanted...then what?

My house is clean. I don't mean it looks clean. I mean it is uncluttered! I mean it has been purged of all of the junk that I accumulated and kept for no apparent reason. It is CLEAN!

I now have kids rooms that can be walked in. How did that happen? There are no toys everywhere falling off of every shelf. We must have gotten rid of at least 3 boxes of toys.

I no longer have to cram the drawers shut. The clothes actually fit into the drawers without overflowing....IN ALL OF OUR ROOMS! That in itself is a miracle. I got rid of at least 6 garbage bags of our clothes and 4 boxes of kids clothes.

I was ruthless. You should have seen me! I was SMOKIN'! TOSS, KEEP, DONATE, EWWW....and whatever came to mind as I was shown things. It felt so gooooooood!!!!

So now what do I do with myself? I have always had this underlying guilt that my house was cluttered and it kind of just ate at me all the time. Now it isn't and it just doesn't feel right! I lived the other way so long that I don't know what to do with myself now!

I guess I should tackle the garage one of these days. PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME DO IT!!!!

An act of God...

...or a least a half a dozen church ladies. That is what it took to get my bedroom decluttered. WOW DOES IT LOOK GREAT!

I didn't know you were supposed to be able to see anything below your shoulders while standing up in a vanity mirror! Who knew you were supposed to be able to shut ALL of your drawers of your dresser? You mean to tell me that clothes are not supposed to be packed tighter then sardines in the closet?

WHY DOESN'T ANYBODY TELL ME THESE THINGS? I would have done this a lot sooner! Ok...so that last part was a tall tale, but it sounded good!

So anyways...I can actually lay in my bed and not feel like my room is going to attack me. I can walk all the way to both dressers without tripping on anything. I can pull clothing out of the closet without having 5 things fall of the hangers from the friction! These feats are right up there with the parting of the Red Sea! I just never thought it would happen!

Believe it or not...I actually got rid of 2 garbage bags worth of yarn! That is a true miracle! I donated it to the craft group at the church because they can always use scrap yarn. I think that in itself is a huge event. ME PART WITH YARN???? WHO KNEW? LOL

THANK YOU MOPS LADIES FOR ORGANIZING THE UNORGANIZABLE!!!! YOU GALS ARE THE GREATEST!

So we are on to conquering my bedroom

Yes...I do mean conquering. When we changed our office into Little D's room so Princess Grabby Hands could have the nursery...well...all the stuff had to go somewhere and only a small amount of it could go in the new desk in the living room. Can you guess where the rest went?

Since that cold February day (yes, PGH slept in our room for quite a while out of me being too lazy to switch rooms) we have harbored things such as a sewing machine, a few huge Rubbermaid containers full of yarn, a book shelf, some cork boards and many other items in our bedroom. Let's just say that my bedroom looks more like Sandford and Son instead of Martha Stuart.

I have some lovely MOPS mommies coming buy to help. They are organizers extraordinaire. Either they are that darn good or they just don't know what they are getting themselves into! I probably have bottles of hair products and perfume in there that have dust on their dust. Mounds of clothes that don't have a home.

I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS! I NEED A RETREAT IN MY OWN HOME!

You can't tell I'm excited, can you?

Why must I be the keeper of the toilet paper?

Am I the only adult capable in this house to change the roll? I guess so!

I can almost guarantee that if there is a roll that is almost empty, hubby will use all but 2 sheets of toilet paper to avoid changing the roll. You know....IT'S NOT EMPTY YET....as the excuse. Yeah, like what can I do with 2 sheets of toilet paper? Pick a booger? I couldn't even blow my nose with that small amount!

The last time I went into the bathroom I made sure to tell hubby to bring a roll in with him since it is almost empty. That was earlier this afternoon. I go in there a few minutes ago (mind you this is now about 8 hours later) and find the roll with a few wisps of toilet paper hanging off of it and the new roll still sitting on the back of the toilet.

I think this is an epidemic. I know many other "Keepers of the toilet paper" as well and their complaints are the same. I guess pushing that spindle together to pop out, pulling the cardboard roll off, sliding the new roll on and then pushing the spindle back into the holder is just too hard.

Maybe we should start a school. "TOILET PAPER INSTILLATION FOR THE ROLL REMOVAL CHALLANGED 101" We'll save 102 for recognizing that the roll will be empty enough soon to make sure another roll is available for the next person in case they need it. I can guarantee that there would be a line of wives out the door signing up husbands and kids left and right. Now if we could actually get said husbands and kids to attend the class...that is the problem.

So...off I go keeping fannies wiped and keeping females from having to drip dry. Into the night I whoosh making sure that nobody is needing to yell through the door "I NEED A ROLL!" For I am KEEPER OF THE TOILET PAPER! The mightiest of all!

So join me! KEEPERS OF THE TOILET PAPER UNITE! Or is it untie? No matter, I will keep all toilet paper spindles filled or die trying! Or maybe it's try dying...no no no! Maybe do some tie dying? Whichever! AND I'M OFF! >Way off....just ask my hubby!<

I don't know what got into me

Maybe I am sick of looking at the stuff. Maybe it's because we need the money. Maybe I am just enjoying selling stuff. I just finally got a bunch of stuff listed on eBay.

Wow that is hard work. I give a lot of credit to those women that do this for a living to make extra cash. All that picture taking and pricing and description making. WHEW

Now I can see why some people just go to these eBay brokers to get their stuff listed. How do I start a racket like that? I can do that for a living...especially if it's kids stuff!

Now if only I can get motivated to clean out the rest of my house. I guess this is a step in the right direction...right? I swear, there are days that I feel like just cleaning out the whole house and putting it up on eBay. It's just stuff that I probably don't really need and most likely wouldn't miss.

Why do we get so attached to our junk? I mean really! You can hold onto something so small and insignificant for years and then finally pull it out and wonder what the heck you kept it for. How silly.

I need to go through the rest of the 4 million boxes in the garage. Maybe, just maybe there could be something worth something in one of them. Probably not though! While I'm dreaming....

So who wants to get me organized?

I think I have bought at least 3 books on organization. I would read them except I have no clue where they are! That statement would be funnier if it weren't true....sigh.

I'm looking around my house and am just shaking my head in disgust. I am tired of saying "sorry about the mess but we are in the middle of spring cleaning" when it's already September! I have a box for a box, a bag for a bag and piles all over. BLEH!

So, who wants to come clean out my house? I totally need one of those clutter shows here. They would probably look at my house and say NEVER MIND! I know, I'm pathetic! I told you I am a supermom dropout! You don't believe me?

My living room is decorated in early toddler. Toys, hand prints and crumbs everywhere. My kitchen is clutter haven. It has junk that is on it's way to the garage on a few counters but has not made it that far. We won't talk about the dog food all over the floor that the dog seemed to think she needed to spread around.

Speaking of the garage....wait, I don't want to speak about it. I have a 2 1/2 car garage that I cannot get one car into. With my sister's stuff in there (tanning bed, washer, dryer, TV's, bikes, etc.) and all my junk (those many boxes of clothes I mentioned in a previous post), you have to CLIMB all over everything to get to what you are looking for.

The attic. Well....yeah....the attic. It isn't full but the whole area around the pull down steps is so crowded that I can't put anything else up there unless I organized first. I will be lucky to find the Christmas decorations in a couple of months.

My bedroom. The catch all for everything we don't want getting into the kid's hands. Toys that are taken from them when they won't pick them up so they become ours for a day or two. Laundry that is always over due for getting done. My dresser that I don't remember what the top of it looks like because of all the junk that gets piled on it. What a wonderful, peaceful haven to sleep in. NOT!

Princess Grabby Hand's room. The kids don't play in there so it has boxes of clothes to grow into flowing out of the closet. There is a box of extra stuff from the kitchen that we don't know what to do with it. She, also, has my old desk (from when I was a kid) in there and her room is DINKY! Poor girl. One of these years I'll get to redecorating and organizing her room. Maybe in time for her to get married even!

The bathroom. Between the two litter boxes that tends to have more litter out of the then in them because of the sloppy cats and a hubby that has a habit of leaving EVERYTHING in there (including a complete library of books) I always feel like the place is a mess. We won't go into the bath toys hanging on the wall in a mesh laundry bag.

Now the last thing, Little D's room. Believe it or not, our 2 1/2 year old room is the most organized in the house. Well, it was the most recent redecorating project that we have done (this past spring). We made him a Bat Cave....Batman. I recently changed the furniture around in there to make it easier for the kid's to play in there so everything is pretty well organized. Wow, who would have thunk it? A boy's room cleaner then the rest of the house.

Oh wait! I cannot forget our yard. I have a brown and withered thumb so the thought of me growing anything but hostas (the plant that never dies) is a joke. In fact, I am so over run with hostas that I think the yard will soon no longer need mowing because it will be one giant hosta. I guess that is what I get for wanting something that I can plant that I can't kill. The yard is decorated in preschool playground. Swing set, club house, ride on cars, bikes, trikes, basketball hoop, etc. all clutter the yard. I can't complain, it was all given to us for free.

HELP! ANYONE???? I THINK I NEED A BULLDOZER AND JUST START OVER!

So why can't I get automatic clothes rotation?

I just spent about 2 hours sorting through clothes. First, the hand me down clothes given to me by friends (THANKS GALS) that are for both Little D and Princess Grabby Hands. I had looked through them when I first got them but never actually did anything with them aside from leaving them in their boxes on my couch until now because the items were a little too big.

Today I decided that PGH's belly button hanging out of everything and ankles showing when she wears pants is over. If LD wore some of his jammies much longer, the ability of him creating grandchildren would be in question because they were getting a bit snug in *AHEM* certain places. I washed, folded and sorted everything by drawer (or hanging up) to get used which took about an hour to do (besides the actual washing/drying). Can I just say these kids are set?

I spent the next 30 minutes going through their drawers (the ones in their dressers, not the ones on their butts....they still have diapers, not undies). Found almost two boxes of outgrown clothes between the two of them. I think that both LD and PGH would have been wearing Daisy Duke shorts soon if I kept some of them in their clothes line up. Anybody need some clothes? I think there are about 20 boxes in the garage now. Ok, let me rephrase that....anybody want to help me get ready for a garage sale? I didn't think so....

Well, then I spent about another 30 minutes putting all the new clothes in their homes. I know there are probably things I missed but I'll find them when I go to put them on their little fannies and they are showing baby booty cracks when they bend over! LOL It already happened to PGH with a pair of pants daddy put on her yesterday. They were a tad small and we had to change her before going grocery shopping so people wouldn't take pitty on the poor ragamuffin child!

I don't know how people switch their whole wardrobe between the seasons. I just can't be that organized. I'm lucky if all my clothes in MY closet fit me at the same time much less if it's the right season. Considering I wear shorts around the house in the winter because I keep the place nice and toasty, no point in storing them away.

So my idea...I want an automatic clothes rotation system. One that scans the kids, gets their measurements and determines which clothes in their rooms will not fit anymore and weeds them out into a box. Would be nice, eh? While I'm dreaming.......

Take a toy...any toy!

TWO FULL BOXES AND A BAG OF GARBAGE!

That is what has come out of this house so far from cleaning Little D's room out of any broken or unused toys. I cannot believe that many toys were not being used! Oh my gosh does it look so much better in there! We even had room to rearrange things so he could get to his train table again. Yes...He is FINALLY playing with that cash hog! WOOHOO!!!!

So we still have Princess Grabby Hands' room to clean out. I know for a fact there are rattles and stuff in there and the child is over a year old. I don't think rattles are what is on her mind to play with at this point. Who knows, I may find the Holy Grail in there!

I just want the stuff out of here! With LD's birthday and Christmas being back to back, I know that they will get restocked on the toys in a few short months. We didn't get rid of the "favorites" or the ones they play with at least once every couple of weeks. It was all the stuff that I haven't seen either child touch in ages even though they had full access to them!

So now what to do. On top of about 20 boxes of clothes in the garage, I now have the two boxes of toys I just cleaned out plus another two that I cleaned out about 4 months ago. I gave a few toys to the speech therapist to update some of her stuff (she gets bored using the same toys over and over).

Garage sale. I know that is what is on so many of your minds. I really want to but UGH the work! It takes forever to set up and price everything. The clean up is easier because everything gets shoved into boxes and off to the charity thrift store with it. I refuse to try to resell things from the year before and have them take up space in my garage for a whole year. I'm sure I'll have a lot of other things that I am sick of seeing not being used by the next year.

Then to make sure the kids don't come along and take back out what you put in there! That is the hard part. They see toys they haven't played with in ages and all of a sudden it's their favorite toy all over again. GROAN!

So do I or don't I...that is the question. Decisions, decisions. If I am going to do this, I have to do it soon. It's already September for Pete's sake! (Who's Pete anyways and why do we care about his sake?) Someone want to come over and do my garage sale for me? I thought not. Well, I tried!

Mommy's on Strike!

Here is the blog that I wanted to publish last night but couldn't because I couldn't upload my pictures because of the snafu that happened last night that I wrote about so I am now writing it today!

Did that make any kind of sense? Don't worry, I wrote it and have absolutely no idea what it means! To see what I am talking about...please read the Blog from 9/1/07.

Considering we've had at least one person sick for the last 7 days (meaning mommy in one form or the other plus the remaining 3 in the house with colds).....MOMMY IS ON STRIKE! I just don't have it in me to even care if my house is clean.

Those that are clean freaks and germ-o-phobes may want to look away from the following pictures. I will not take responsibility for you if you pass out or get sick at the following sights of my house! The rest of you....read on!

This is my living room after 3 days. Not bad you say? Well....I have spared you the kitchen sink filled to capacity with dishes, the couch filled with dirty kids clothes, my hamper so overflowing that it's now spilling to the floor and the garbage can that has a bag sitting next to it because the can is so full that we cannot fit even a raisin on top without it falling off. We have LD in a tent that now blocks the hallway and PGH pounding away on a toy.....and subsequently my head. Oh my aching head....


As you can see...the kids have decided that 50% of the toys in this house now need to be in the living room. Little D has taken up mechanics and is now trying to figure out how the walker works from the bottom up...er down (since it's upside down). I just thank God that Princess Grabby Hands wasn't in it when he decided it needed to be flipped over. She is engrossed in The Upside Down show on TV. Yes, my toddler watches TV and her eyes haven't burned out of her head yet. Sue me!


Apparently, the walker is now fixed and LD is turning back upright. The dog has taken it upon herself to make sure that the plate on the floor that LD flipped over has nothing left on it. I guess she figured she would help with the dishes. Thanks old girl but I don't need your special doggy spit detergent. PGH is still clueless that her brother is doing anything behind her. She is so used to the extra loud noises he makes that she is oblivious to him until she wants to play with him.

If you noticed, the first picture has PGH standing. Yes, she CAN walk but no she WON'T walk. PGH can get places faster on her hands and knees, thank you very much. LD is all over the living room while PGH is pretty calm and in one place. She is my mellow child (aside from the grabby hands) while LD is the fart in a bottle that needs to bounce through the house like a super ball!

Well, mommy is feeling a little better. The kids are rambunctious again so I guess they are on the mend and daddy dealt with the garbage as well as getting my camera card reader thingy (yes, yet another technical term) this morning so we must be feeling better. I guess we have no choice but to make this house look acceptable now.

I know if someone came by unexpectedly I would have to tell them we were robbed or a tornado hit JUST our house or something to explain the disaster. I am so glad we have no company expected this Labor Day weekend!

I hope this goes to show you just how UN SUPERMOM I AM! Those of you in my shoes...I hope I made you feel better about not getting your housework done and you know that not everyone is as efficient as they try to make themselves out to be. Not all of us can be neatnicks, ya know! We have to be different to put a little spice into life! My motto? Clean enough to be healthy but dirty enough to be happy!

Now back to your regularly scheduled cleaning!

>>>>WHERE IS MY MAID??? Oh yeah....I'm it. I thought M is for MOM and not MAID...but that is another blog maybe in the future!<<<<