Queue Theme Music From Mission Impossible

January's Mission:

Clean and Organize the Master Bathroom

I don't want to start with anything too hard (like my heap of a bedroom) and it sounds easy enough especially since we have 3 bathrooms.  Given the odd layout of our house, the Master Bathroom is actually in our daughters room and used as the main bathroom by all 4 of us.  It is also home to my walk in closet, also part of this months mission.  In a world where we don't have anything organized, it's complete chaos in there.  Towels, clothes, toothbrushes, toys ... all strewn about.  I'm surprised no one has been hurt in there... yet.

Alright, here's the pictures of what were working with..  I really hate this part.  I prefer to pretend I am only exaggerating on the level of chaos.

 Welcome to our bathroom.... or shall I say, Enter with caution.

 Hey, it's m4 409 on the window sill.  I've been looking for that.  Too bad I bought a new bottle today.

 I've been trying to get those stains out of the caulking.  I think I'm going to remove the caulking and start over.

 All the crap, off the floor.  Perhaps shoes can live there.. FOR THE FIRST TIME.

 Oh look, folded clothes.. who do they belong to?  Dunno.  What items are they?  I dunno.. but don't touch it or it will all fall down!

 And especially don't touch this pile.  I don't care what's in it.. that pile hurts when it falls on you!

I really can't wait until I have an *after* or at least an in progress picture to post.


Granted, when it comes to closets, I've seen worse.. I have worse.  But I can never find anything in there.  My pants are mixed with my husbands pants, mixed with socks, mixed with Lord knows what else.  Anytime I reach to grab something, it all comes tumbling down on my head.  When I do laundry, I just shove stuff up where ever I can find an open spot.  Everything is going to find a home, there are going to be baskets on the shelves, I am going to have Messy Dad finally make me the bottom drawer to the dresser type thing we have in there, and perhaps I'll stop keeping my shoes in the living room and start keeping them in the closest, now that's a novel idea.

Yes, a month might be overkill for a closet and bathroom.  I figure this will help me establish good habits in the bathroom.  No more allowing anyone (myself included) to leave clothes and towels on the floor after a shower.  Sink will be cleaned daily, toilet, shower, floors and mirrors will be cleaned 2x per week.

Alright, it's official, I have set my first task with a start and an end date.. AND it's in writing.  I'm going to do it.  Because if I don't, not only do I let myself down, I let my family down as well.  Ready or not, here I come!

Until next time,
Messy Mom

Getting Things Ready

It all starts the day after tomorrow.  Still not sure how to go about organizing my bathroom cabinet.  But I did order 8 storage baskets for my closet.  I also have a label maker on order.... oh, the fun I am going to have with that! 

Haven't broken the news to my husband yet that I am going to need him to finishing making the missing drawer in my closet.  Heck, I haven't even told him about the blog.  I will, someday.  Perhaps it's the fear of failure... then again, I am blogging about it.

Maybe I'll tell him AFTER I get the bathroom and closet all taken care of.  Perhaps he'll see how serious I am and be a willing participant in my adventure.  Who am I kidding?  It involves cleaning... a lot of cleaning.  I'll still tell him after my first mission is complete and hopefully he will happily watch as I go about redoing everything one room at a time.

Don't get me wrong, Mr. Messy is a great guy, nice guy, you might even go so far as to say he's the man of my dreams.  I just don't think he's going to have a 100% faith in me until I prove it.  I'm more than alright with that.  I'm willing to put in the time because frankly, I need to prove it to myself too.

Until Next Time,
Messy Mom

The Ugly Truth

I suppose I really can't continue any further without showing you the ugly truth.  Somehow I manage to not notice it everyday.  I guess you can call it selective vision.  But seeing what the camera sees really sucks.

I have a lovely house.... underneath it all.  All the piles of crap, and dishes and clothes and toys and mail and everything else I try to mentally block out.  But the layers are coming off and I am going to do it right so I can keep it manageable.  So we can live like everyone else lives.

So there it is.  That's how my kitchen looks today, right now in fact.  I am sitting on the computer while I have a house that looks like this.  I love to cook.  Been told I am an excellent cook in fact.  But, I haven't cooked anything in a while.  How can I?  There's no room to create.  I really miss working in the kitchen.  Even when I do cook now, I don't enjoy it because of the chaos right on the other side of the counter.

Ready for more?  I'm not sure I am... but if I'm going to commit, I guess I better be willing to jump in with both feet.

Ugh.  This would be a great piece of furniture I had Messy Dad make for me a few years ago.  How do I show him my appreciation?  Frankly I don't.  It's now another surface covered in crap... and in this case, surrounded in crap.  Hey, look!  I see a vacuum cleaner.. yeah, it's probably been sitting in that exact same spot for 2 weeks.

Hard to imagine how we lose things the moment we set them down... yeah, I know, that's laughable... It's painfully obvious to see why we can never find anything.  PAINFULLY.

Is it Jan 1, 11 yet?  Because I'm ready.  I'm really ready.

Until next time,
Messy Mom

How Did I Let This Happen?

How did I let it happen? Well it wasn't a conscience decision, I can tell you that much. Much like excess weight, it slowly crept up on me. I wasn't alone in my culpability. I had plenty of company.. I had depression, anxiety issues, a new found friend of procrastination and plenty of arthritis to throw in the mix. Misery loves company, right? I had plenty of comapny, PLENTY.

First it was the excuses.. I'm too busy to straighten up right now... That pile belongs to my husband.... As soon as I'm done watching this show.... I'll make too much noise and wake up the baby... My knee hurts too much.... I could go on, really, I could. Truth be told, I flat out didn't want to. Not sure if it was the depression or laziness, most likely it was a lot of both. But there was always a reason... and I always had an excuse to give  Heck, you want my excuse right now?  It's because I'm busy blogging and the girls are watching a movie.  Besides, I'd eventually get to it, someday.  Someday never comes.

Someday is finally here and it has a date... 1/1/11. That's my D-Day. My home has been a reflection of my inner self for a long time. But I no longer want to feel the way it looks. It's time to break my way free.

You might be wondering what I do when people come over... well, they don't. I don't have people over. I always have a last minute excuse as to why I have to cancel or change the venue. If I don't, there's a darn good reason why the bedroom doors are closed... the messes were moved. My biggest fear?.. .an unexpected guest. AAAAHHH!

No one should live like this. No One. Yet, I'm forcing my family to live this way. I'm all about teaching my children to be responsible and accountable. It's about damn time I am accountable for my home.It's time to conquer this house and be queen of my home instead of inmate #4.

Next on my agenda... figure out what I need to get started.... and own up to my mess and post some pictures.  Ugh.

Until next time,
Messy Mom

So This Is How It All Begins?

I guess this is where I start... an idea. No, a plan. I always say, next year will be different. Is it? In a word, no. But, I've had enough. I want my life back and I want to be serious about it. So I figure if I put it all out there, show the ugly truth, then I will hopefully stick with it.

Here's my plan... In 2011, I am going to organize my entire house. Sure, some of you out there think that's easy enough... you haven't seen my house. I know what an organized house looks like. I used to have one. Before I had a husband, 2 kids, 2 cats, a dog and a rabbit. Now? Now I have something that resembled (far too closely) something you would see on a TLC show.

Here's how I'm going to do it. Each month I am going to pick a room. I'm going to strip it down, get rid of all the crap that we don't need or use and then I'm going to put it all together again... on a budget. I promise to keep it cheap. Why? Because I'm too cheap to spend a ton of money. But I will do what's necessary and get the job done. Heck, I think I'll even post how much money I spent on each room to get everything together. I'm going to be organized, right? Guess I can no longer pitch those receipts the moment I walk out the door.

When... it all starts January 1. I'm going to start with the Master Bath and Master Closet.  I don't want to jump in on a project that is going to be too difficult to handle or too cumbersome that I just give up before it ever even starts.  I want to be realistic.  I figure if I start off small, I can start creating positive habits,  start forming ideas for other areas of the house and really get the ball moving in the right direction.

Well, here we go! Guess I better start shopping for a label maker on the cheap!