A Dirty Secret

I have a secret...and I'm ready to confess.  Maybe you'll help hold me more accountable once you know my secret.

You know all of those amazing (I can add that, right?) things I do - ya know - cloth diapering, making Aidan's food, trying new recipes, running 5K's, playing softball, and getting up at 4AM to work out? Weeeeell, it comes with a sacrifice. Sleep is already sacrificed. So what else? How about keeping a clean, organized house. I know, I have a toddler, but the toddler did not throw crap all over the master bedroom or pile paperwork, boxes, and other randomness in the office. The toddler was key in helping me convince AJ that it was time to purge the old VHS tapes - but Die Hard and Rambo are classics! Great babe, get them on DVD or watch them when they come on television. So after sharing my embarrassing mess the office is, and it only became worse as Aidan's birthday approached, I figured it was time to be pro active about organizing.

Since I am being honest here, the real truth is the clutter began not long after I started my Masters program, and it continued until I completed by PE license since they were back to back. So almost 3 years of a bad habit made it easier to fall out of my neat, organized routine I once had. Let's not talk about cleaning...yikes. There was a short period after my PE license and before Aidan was born that I knocked out a lot of house projects, cleaning, and organization. Anyway, on to the mess we live in.

First stop is the Master bedroom. Before, After, and Now. So before the organization, immediately after, and the living situation less than two weeks later. How about a B for maintenance effort...okay, C +??? Be generous. I worked on several other rooms in the interim, so it was clean the bed room, okay, now focus on the worse mess.

The second stop is the Office. Before (YIKES) and the Work in Progress

I know, you wonder how it gets like this.  You open the door, drop whatever it is that you want to hide or do not have time to put away, and close the door. QUICK, else the guilt of laziness sets in.  Really, the office became one big storage closet.  In fact, several instances while typing this blog out, I wrote "closet" instead of "office".  Obviously, the mentality had seeped into my brain.  But I am here to tell you, I am stopping such non sense. I hope

My plan is to spend 30 minutes each night after Aidan goes to bed cleaning, organizing, and working on my "To-Do" List so that I am not overwhelmed Friday and never get anything in order.  It's working so far.  I use to push laundry out until Friday, but instead of leading a load of diapers sit in a laundry basket, I stuffed, folded, and put them away.  I felt like I had accomplished something by being productive instead of lazily surfing the internet or watching tv. I downloaded an App for my phone to put my "To-Do" list items in it, and I can set a due date.  We'll see how long it lasts, but at least I have goals written down and will hopefully feel guilty if I keep pushing them out.

Also, since fall is here, it's time for the fall purging, so it coincides well with my want to get organized and cleaned.  Though I dare you to ask me in a couple of months how this new effort is going.  Hopefully well...hopefully.

I will hold myself accountable, and you can, too.

Here's my current list:

• Grocery Shop
• Mount the Toddler Bike Seat to My Bike
• Drop off Goodwill Donations
• Organize Office Paperwork
• Place Tide Stick in Purse (incident with white shirt and coffee led to this, and yes, I need a task to remind me to do something so minuscule)
• Write Clutter Blog
• Make a book for Aidan's first year
• Order Aidan's pictures
• Bake Two Pecan Pies

There will be more items on the list, I'm sure of it, but this was the first day of making my list.