Reality

Lest anyone have any misperceptions around here... My house is a mess. It's always a mess. It drives me crazy because it's so messy. We have clutter and crap everywhere. And we have 'construction' mess by means of drywall mud on the walls and half-primed bathroom walls (below), untrimmed windows, no baseboards, no flooring in a few rooms, and unpainted trim everywhere.

{That little piece of paper I taped to the mirror says:
"Exercise ...your right to be healthy." It's my little motivation.}

It's easy to crop out messes so I can post positive, fun photos on here. But the reality is very different. My house isn't like that. I dream of it being like that and if I had it, I'd pay good money to have a professional organizer come in and put it together for me. But I don't so I just chip away at it little by little and hope someday I'll figure out how to 'get it together'!

Sometimes I lose focus and get all negative about it. Like my loft for instance, I've been chipping away at the boxes and clutter up there for years (it's been our 'storage area') and I get so frustrated that it's not done yet. I finally made great progress last year but I still have a bunch of stuff around the edges that I need to go through and haven't had time lately with homeschool and a baby to contend with.

{Ladder for drywall mudding. A chair in front of the stove with something thawing (our preferred method of thawing in the wintertime since we don't have/use a microwave). Clean laundry on the couch. Couch cushions falling off. There is almost always laundry on the couch. Can't tell as much here, but we might as well add 'dirty windows' to the list.}

I'm a collector and I have the junk shop so I have a lot of stuff in boxes for that as well as the things that I love around here. I like stuff. I love to collect things but I struggle to keep it all organized when we don't have closets (intentionally) and I still don't have enough cupboards, hutches, and dressers around here. And I'm a perfectionist so it especially drives me crazy sometimes.

{Clean rugs drying on chairs, uncleared table that also needs to be wiped down. Sheetrock mud on the walls. Unpainted trim.}

So, anyway, there you have it. A little peek at the reality around here. And that's just the 'tame' mess. I didn't even get pictures of the toys all over and the unmade beds and the dirty dishes in the sink and on the counter and... well, everything else. I don't want anyone to mistakenly believe that our house is neat and put together because it's usually sailing!

Actually, when I look at these pictures, I wish my entire house was 'this messy' - because it would be pretty clean compared to how it really is.

Comments

[Vicky M]

AW. A lived in home-my favorite kind!! Don't worry about it, Jen, my house is quite similar to yours.... A smaller scale of yours, in fact! :) Hang in there, it will all come together! (someday)

[Julie]

Our house is so similar! A few house projects half done. And I love to have everything really organized so I have one section of the house at a time that's great while everything else is a disaster. I'm constantly sorting and getting rid of things but you'd never be able to tell. Lol. It's very kid-friendly and lived-in. :)

[Heidi]

Our house is a bit like this...except a lot older. Broken railing, crappy paint job, leaking roof. Um yeah. That's in the entry-hopefully that will get fixed in the spring before it causes any serious damage. It would be fine right now if we didn't keep getting warm weather!

[Jen t]

I've long wondered why you opted for no closets.

I really like the tile on the bathroom floor! It reminds me of the house my family lived in until I was 10;)

[Nora O]

I love the color of the bathroom walls!! You couldn't stay crabby in a room of that color! Do you plan to put beadboard or something on the bottom, where it is not painted?

[sandy koivisto]

I discovered ages ago that the best way to deal with it is decide it doesn't matter and you don't care.

enjoy your kids instead. soon they will be all grown up......

aunt sandy

[Sara]

hahaha....you had me laughing thru this post in all its honesty! :) We gotta work with what we got, hey?! Someday...