homemaking | Revolution of Love

**Taming the procrastinating, ADD, mess cat within me.**

I’ve discussed in a number of previous posts (like here and here) about my battle with keeping a clean and organized house. I’m naturally messy and the amount of work I have to do to clean up and organize our house is overwhelming. However, it’s a project I want to undertake because it’s important to me.
I think there is some truth to the saying “cleanliness is next to godliness.” Someone once told me that a person’s exterior life reflects their interior life. I don’t know if that is true but I do know that after awhile I get tired, frustrated and grouchy with all the piles of papers and junk and disorganized areas of the house. A house with little kids will never look like a museum – and never should – but I could definitely use a little more order in my life and I know the difference it makes.
When I do clean up an area and have it organized it makes my life run a little bit smoother. (Who can’t use that?!) I am more at peace and feel that I am better accomplishing my mission in life – to raise a happy family and make our home a little taste of heaven on earth as we work towards entering our eternal home. It is my small way of showing God that I love him – to put aside my natural messy tendencies and find the orderly and creative woman I know is lurking in there somewhere.
So I’ve decided to start “Operation Clean and Organize.” Every week (or two) I’ll post what I am working on and how it is progressing. To start things off, I sat down and made a list of all the chores I need to do each day and those I can do once a week. I used the Family Chore Chart from iheartorganizing to organize my list. (I still haven’t figured out the quarterly or annual jobs. I’m barely getting the basics down.) Here is what I have so far. View image. As the weeks go by, I’ll tweak it as needed. (And although, prayer time isn’t a “chore” I wrote it down as a reminder that it can’t be skipped. 😉
There is a small wall in my kitchen that is covered by the swing door that leads into the family room. I hung up the chart on that wall after I put it in a $1.99 Ikea frame that I had. I can use a dry erase marker to check off the list as I complete my work. I also hung up a clipboard that holds our Family Home To-Do List. I went through each room in the house and wrote down everything I wanted to do in there – from cleaning out closets to dusting tops of book shelves – as well as other projects I’d like to work on – from organizing the photos to updating my recipe binder to finishing the baby books. It may take years to complete my list but at least I can work on one thing at a time instead of doing ten projects at once and finishing none!

I also hung up in my kitchen a small board next to the counter where I cook and prepare food. I use it to keep notes and jot down things I need to remember. Above it I hung up (using removable Command hooks) a clip board for the recipes I’ll be cooking that week. I can read the recipe off the clipboard as I’m fixing it. So far it has worked great.

Next project – Making a weekly menu.
Are you working on organizing your home? Is your home already organized? Share your stories and tips in the comment section. Thanks!

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UPDATE: (9/9/11) Misty at Misty’s Mornings Blog has some creative ideas in her post Creating An Autumn Rhythm {four steps to a cleaning schedule}. I love making lists but not because I’m super organized. Sadly, the opposite. If I don’t write things down, I completely forget those same things! Anyway, Misty has some great ideas and advice, so head over and check it out.

It’s just past midnight right now and I should be asleep but I’ve been cleaning all day (thanks to my sis watching the kids for me) and I wanted a few minutes to unwind and catch up on some Catholic mom blogs.

I recently added a number of new blogs into my google reader and I’m sifting through them to see which ones I’ll read regularly and which ones are good but not where I am in life.

The first ones to go are the blogs that depress me. You know the ones I’m talking about. The ones that have countless posts by talented moms showing their beautiful gardens, their homemade baked goods and home cooked meals, their hand sewn clothes, and their Catholic craft of the day. I can take these in small doses but not all the time. Like I said, it depresses me.

And it’s not their fault. It’s mine. I just can’t seem to follow their lead. I’ve tried to garden. Truly, I have. In fact, just a few months ago I decided to start again but to keep it simple. No veggies or elaborate flower beds. Instead I have two simple window boxes of flowers and three herbs – basil, Italian parsley and cilantro. I was doing really well but as usual I forgot to water and not just once or twice but for days. Yesterday I went outside to check on my herbs and lo and behold, I’m the only person on my block to have a garden of dried herbs. (Dried… dead… is there really much difference?) Yeah, so gardens and I don’t do so well.

Then we come to the sewing. I swear my sister EL took all the sewing genes in my family because I have zero interest and even less skill. Okay, maybe I could sew on a button if I was forced, but just barely. To prove my point, when I was younger I’d hem my pants with duct tape and I’ve “sewn” things together with a stapler. Yeah, not one of my prouder moments. I get a lot more happiness when I don’t sew and instead find a cute outfit on sale at Target or Macy’s.

As for baking, home cooked meals and crafts, on occasion I’ll put together something good or at least fairly decent but I don’t do it all the time. My bigger concerns on a daily basis is that the dishes are cleared before Brian gets home, that everyone has clean undies, that the boys haven’t demolished the house and that I’ve cleaned the pee, poop or spit up from where it happened to land that day. I can barely accomplish that let alone create a replica of the Vatican made entirely out of cupcakes. Sigh. Well, if it means I have our local pizza place on speed dial, so be it.

So instead of being envious of those other moms I’m simply going to avoid temptation and not read their blogs regularly. Instead I’ll enjoy kindred posts like Calah’s In the Dumps or Nikki’s To Call or Not to Call and I’ll realize that I’m not alone in my struggle. There are other moms who are trying to get through these adventurous years just as I am.

Oh, I admit that I will try to improve a little each day. But for today, I’ll love my family and serve God in the way I know best – with my dried herbs, duct tape and delivery pizza.

UPDATE: It’s been a month since I wrote this post and it has been on my mind a lot because God has been using those thoughts to teach me some mom lessons. I talk more about it in my post here.

UPDATE #2: Fast forward two months ahead. I decided that heck, if you can’t beat them, join them. I’m attempting to get myself organized so my life will run a little smoother and I won’t be so frazzled with the daily grind of motherhood. You can follow the journey here.