Today I cleaned a corner of my bedroom. I know you're shocked. A whole corner! Wow!
Being organized is something I have never managed. Too much stuff; too few places to put it. Having children made the disorganization worse. When there are six baskets of laundry sitting around and you don't have time to fold them because children need food, or bathing, or to be played with; then finally they're in bed and you can't face the laundry because you need just a few minutes to yourself, at last.. Then the shelves are overflowing with books, because you have so, so, so many books, and they get piled on night stands and chairs, and perched on the edges of book shelves, and they fall on the floor and get scattered around and it's almost pointless to pick them up because there's nowhere to put them anyway.. When the cupboard where everything gets stashed is so full of disorganized items that things begin to spill out onto the floor, mixing with the laundry and books and toys that are already there..
Well, it's really hard to maintain order, and even harder to find time and energy to do anything about it. It all seems like such a monstrous job, and I hardly know where to begin. And no matter what I pick up, the children will fling more things around tomorrow, so it almost feels pointless.
So despite all that, this evening I cleaned one corner of my room. Yes, a corner; the one between the built-in overflowing cupboards and the overstuffed book shelves. I picked up books and stacked them on the shelves. I smiled at boxes of pictures and set them on top of rag towels in the cupboards. I picked up formerly clean clothes that had fallen out of baskets and were now covered in hairs, and put them in the dirty hamper to try again.
And you know something? It feels really good to see the carpet again. It's not perfect--yet--but I have an expanse of floor where I can walk without stepping carefully over or around junk. And I have faith that tomorrow I can do another corner, and then another, and that at some point my room will be clean. I may have to purge a lot of our possessions, but it will be worth it.
What corner in your life did you attack today?
I did the dishes. There weren't very many because Daniel (bless him) just did them recently, but between a six week old who thinks sleep is overrated and a two year old who is still trying to figure out what exactly the terrible twos are, I feel pretty proud of myself. Maybe I'll vacuum the floors tomorrow, who knows.
ReplyDeleteDishes are horrible! At the end of a long day, on days when it's my turn to do them, sometimes I just can't look at them. So then I wait until the morning and take care of them while making breakfast. And I don't even have a little baby! So, wow, you are awesome! Doing chores with small children in the house is a huge accomplishment!
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