Housekeeping

I have a confession to make - I am a horrible housekeeper. I try, believe me I try, but somehow, some way it all just sorta falls flat. Things are clean but life is cluttered. I spent the morning cleaning. I vacuumed and dusted. I have been washing clothes. I mopped the kitchen floor and cleaned the bathroom. I threw a bunch of stuff out. My house is small so I really don't have a lot of space to put stuff - and we've lived here for 17 years now so we've accrued a good deal of stuff. I've very slowly been trying to scale down but it's not going well. I also need a new washer and dryer - this one uses a ton of water and the dryer eats clothes. We spend most of the time hanging our clothes to dry to avoid having anymore clothes ruined with bite marks the dryer leaves. I will be washer/dryer shopping soon - as soon as I get the taxes ready and discover if/how much a refund will be. Whew. Sheesh.

If I were smart (and I think I've established a case for not being) I would hire an organizing expert to come in and set me straight. I'm a wiz at maintaining but I'm not so sure I'm such a wiz at creating. Or maybe the truth is I've just let it all get so far behind that I'm sorta overwhelmed about where to start... how to get it all in order. I was in the dark for so long, all my energy focused in the day to day struggle just to keep my head above water and I let some stuff just sorta slide. I was flipping through channels today and saw a show on hoarders - boy, did that make me feel good! As bad as I may think my house is, it's no where near what I saw on those shows. So maybe I'm being too hard on myself?

I guess the truth is, the more I've become organized and together inside me, the more organized and together I want to be on the outside too. It took me a little while to get my internal self together, I guess I can't rush the outside either. Baby steps... that's what it's all about... doing something small, everday. Life is busy though... I have to take the opportunity when it presents itself, which is what I did today. No kids, no place to be, so I had to opportunity to clean. It felt good.