Okay, so when we bought our 1650sqft. house, it was just Blair and I and we had lots of room. Now, 5 years and 2 kids later, our house seems so small and I feel like I'm drowning in clutter. The front room has a train table and bigger toys like the Fisher-Price farm, house, rock quarry and garage; and those are just Nicholas' We also right now have boxes of clothes to down into the crawl space, pictures and art to be hung and baby gifts to be delivered...all in that front room. The kitchen/great room is no better, with "junk" (stuff that has no proper place) all over the counters, papers to be shredded, recycled and did I mention that the dining room table has become the dumping ground for newspapers, kids shoes and slippers, hats and more stuff to be shredded or recycled? We have a book shelf that is supposed to be for our books, a phone and the stereo, but is once again cluttered with "stuff" that needs to be out of reach of the little hands. In the great room/family room, where we spend most of our time has Claire's toys, a second book shelf for DVD's and Nicholas' books, a toy box in a small alcove and you guessed it, all of it full of "stuff". Behind our big t.v. is more stuff to keep out of reach of little hands.
Arggh, I just feel like everywhere I look, there is stuff that needs to find a home or be tossed. Now, I'm not blaming anyone, those of you who know me, know that Blair is a great help around the house and does more than his fair share of cleaning. It just seems as though we can't keep on top of this clutter. It doesn't help that I have new house fever and would love a bigger house where, in my mind, we would be forced to organize our "stuff". In a bigger house, we'd have a room for the toys and they wouldn't be EVERYWHERE! Unfortunately for me, we're not in a position to move for another year or so, which means, in order to remain sane, I've got to get a handle on this clutter.
Deep breath....Okay, that's my rant for the day. Now back to the clutter
diane, the size of the house wont reduce the clutter.. I am realizing that it is the way we organize that is the key. If eveything has a place...then it is easy to put it away...
ReplyDeleteI suggest going through all the toys, keeping out thier favorite 10 and then boxing up the rest. They dont really play with all of it anyways.. well, at least our kids dont.
hang in there.. it is sucha hard stuff stage with a toddler and a baby... but it gets better and you will surley find your rythemn and groove... I completely understand your situration. I am just a few years ahead... I promise you that you will see the other side... until then, de clutter as much as you can and know that these kids of ours are so lucky!!
karleigh