Motherhood, Chaos and Tip #4

Clearly, the "One Monday at a Time" tagline has turned into "whenever I have a spare moment!" Heh.

I must premise this post with the following suggestion: please head over to Blooming Yaya and take a gander at the chaos that is my life... that should provide a nice backdrop for Tip #4!

As I was writing my review post regarding the book "Babyproofing Your Marriage" for Parent Bloggers Network, I realized that I was preaching without practicing. I loved the book for many reasons, but the point in the book that hit closest to home for me was "Relax don't do it." In the book, the authors invite mothers to join a call to inaction. A "letting yourself off the hook" for not maintaining a sparkling clean and perfect home just to measure up to the ridiculous Uber-mom standard.

What I took from that was a "relax the sphincter a bit." I have been living this "relax the sphincter" method for the past two weeks. Except that, the sphincter has become so loose that the house has become a complete sty. It is bad. B to the A, D. BAD.

The results have not been that I feel more relaxed, or that I have a renewed sense of focusing on what really matters rather than spending too much time cleaning and organizing. In fact, I feel quite the opposite. With the piles of dishes and laundry, toys strewn from one end of the house to the other, yellow toilets, crumbs littering the kitchen floor and sheets that haven't been changed for well over the requisite 3 weeks... I feel trapped in chaos.

I do not mean to imply that the authors of "Babyproofing Your Marriage" meant for anyone to let their house collapse into complete and utter chaos; it was simply that I took it too far. I have not lifted a finger to do more than replace a roll of toilet paper for almost 2 weeks. Granted I have been very busy with other really important stuff, but not so busy that I can justify the current state of my home.

So, today... I cleaned. The kids and I spent a few hours collecting toys, gathering dirty clothes and stripping the sheets off the beds. Before engaging in this ridiculously entertaining task, I realized something. We have waaaaaay too much shit in this house. In particular, too many toys.

We have many plastic storage bins that Trabinski and I use to trade clothes back-and-forth, so I grabbed five of them and headed upstairs. My oldest son spent an hour filling every bin to over-flowing. FIVE BINS. And, we still have many, many toys. But amazingly, the remaining toys fit in the specified toy area. More importantly, the toys feel manageable now.

Which brings me to Tip #4; get rid of the stuff.

Evaluate it and be honest with yourself. Is it too much? Are you always picking up the same throw pillows every single day? Are there too many pillows on your bed... that always end up in a pile on the floor? Do you have 322 pairs of shoes piled in every corner of your closet? Or 19 pairs of pants that you never wear? Get rid of it. Take it to Goodwill, Salvation Army or your Church Charity. You can be certain, someone else will put it to good use.

Likely, the result will be a sense of relief. And... fewer things to pick up!