The Truth: A REAL LIFE Home Tour

During a time of beautiful Christmas home tours and perfectly staged spaces I feel the need to share something I struggle with on a daily basis, clutter.  I may post pretty pictures on my blog, but by no means is that a representation of the rest of my home.  You see, I don't have it all together.  Actually, I am far from having it all together.  My house is a mess, I am about 5 loads of laundry behind and I can't remember the last time I changed my sheets.  It's a good day if my kids are wearing matching socks, you can see the bottom of the kitchen sink and the dog hair has been vacuumed from the floor. There are few things I make priorities for each and every day and doing laundry and cleaning dishes do not make the cut.  My kids will be bathed, fed, wearing clean clothes, their hair and teeth will be brushed and homework complete.  Everything else gets put on the back burner, which leads to a less than stellar home.

Being a wife, mother of two and full time employee all while running a blog allows little time for the day to day tasks of running a home.  My morning consists of getting the kid's up, fed and out the door for school.  Then it's my turn to get ready for work.  As soon as I walk in the door from work I immediately have to start dinner, get the kids bathed do homework and get them ready for bed.  Most people would probably clean the house or tidy up during this time, but not me.  I spend 4 hours each and every night doing blog work with minimal breaks to throw in a load of laundry or empty the dishwasher.  Don't get me wrong, I love blogging and every other aspect of my life, but balancing priorities and juggling it all is hard, really hard.

Often times I look around my home and wonder how it got this way.  How is there a random pile in almost every room of our home?

Our entryway stays fairly tidy except for the occasional Lincoln logs or Lego's laying in the middle of the floor, but the rest of the home, well that's a different story.

There sits two baskets of laundry and a pile of mismatch socks that have been there since Saturday.   The other day I counted 19 different types of socks and NO MATCHES, 19!!!  How does that even happen?

You wanna see what's on the other side of the ottoman?

That would be a pile of toys that has been sitting there ever since we put up our tree.

Speaking of our tree, it's definetely not magazine worthy by any means.   The top branch that holds the star broke off and it's filled with wonderful memories of our family and handmade ornaments our kids made instead of perfectly styled ribbon and coordinating ornaments.

You see that bright orange smiley face star?  That would be a prize that Owen won from a claw machine that he just had to have on the tree.  It makes him happy so there it sits, right near the top of the tree.

Our dining  room isn't much better.

There the Christmas boxes still sit and my computer since my office is in complete disarray.

In my defense (why do I feel the need to explain?) most of the items in the corner are Christmas gifts that need to be wrapped.  The other items on the floor and on my desk are decor items that I recently swapped out for Christmas decor.  For some reason I pile everything in my office instead of putting them away.

The mudroom looks pretty good.  Give it a few hours and it will be a completely different story.

Are you ready to see the kid's bedrooms?

I present to you Owen's decorated room.

This is what happens when an eight and six year old sneak off with leftover Christmas lights.  It makes them happy so there they hang.  Oh and look, there's the lost shoe!

I have realized that I am far more stressed and irritable when my home is in disarray.   Starting off my morning with a sink full of dishes or coming home from a long day of work to an unorganized home does nothing to boost my mood.

I'm sharing this post not only to show that what you see on the outside is not always as it appears on the inside, but to hold myself accountable.  Starting today, I'm going to work on one room at a time and get my house in order.

What's my plan of attack?

-As I work through one room at a time I'm going to find a place for everything and really assess what we have in our home.  If it's something we no longer use or need it will get donated.  Less stuff means less clutter and a happier home.
- School papers and mail will get looked at right away and put in the kid's boxes if needed or thrown away.   No more piles on the kitchen counter!
-As soon as I take laundry out of the dryer it will get folded and put away.  No more laundry baskets sitting in our living room.
- The kitchen sink will be emptied every night in an effort to have a less stressful morning.
- My office will no longer be a drop zone for project materials.  I'm going to make every effort to keep it a space for me to work and be inspired.


If you struggle with clutter and piles you are not alone.  No one is perfect and by no means do I want you to come to this blog thinking I have it all together :)

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