WARNING: The images you are about to see are real. Some may find these images frightening or disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.
In case you thought I was exaggerating when I told you about my messy house, here’s proof that I wasn’t:
This is our bonus room, shot from two different angles
Now before you grab your phone and start dialing the producer of Hoaders, I am going to defend myself just a bit. A couple of weeks ago we had our carpets torn up and hardwood floors put down. The men who did this for us accomplished their task in three days. Which meant I didn’t have the luxury of sorting through everything as I cleared out one room at a time. And I couldn’t put everything back in said room before moving on to the next one. Nope. This was more of an all or nothing situation. Betcha can’t guess where I threw all our crap!
So anyway, I’ve been busy with three kids, crying over toast and such, and haven’t had much time to get things back in order. Until last Friday! Friday was a magical day. Friday brought my awesomely amazing sister to my home in the morning and when she left, she took my kids with her. ALL THREE OF THEM. All you moms of young children can understand the rarity of this event. I was in my house. Alone.
Usually if I have an opportunity to be alone it’s to run errands. And while I appreciate this immensely (it’s not real fun taking three kids repeatedly in and out of car seats, not to mention figuring out how to keep them all together once we’re in the store), it’s nothing like being at home by myself. I realize that the day will soon arrive when my children are in school all day (or off to college… ugh, let’s not think about that right now) and I’ll find an empty house sad and depressing. But right now a little absence only makes my heart grow fonder and my feet do a happy dance.
As my sister pulled out of the driveway my mind began going through all the possibilities. I had already determined that this was an unprecedented opportunity to get things done. But where to start?! Both Eric and I agreed that the bonus room was driving us crazy. I nearly had a panic attack every time I went in there. It was the logical place to focus my efforts. So I ignored all the other messes hollering for my attention (not an easy task when every room in the house is practically screaming for relief), grabbed a quick lunch to increase my energy reserves, put on full body armor, and headed for the war zone. Of course my first thought was of my loyal readers (all three of you), so I snapped a couple of ‘before’ pictures. And then I dove right in. After a mere 30 minutes, one section of the room looked like this:
Another 30 minutes after that (an hour total for all those who are math-impaired), the room looked like this:
You know what I call that? I call that PROGRESS! I still have a lot to do, but what I managed to get done in one hour with my kids out of the house, I estimate would have taken five years (okay, slight exaggeration) with them here.
I continued to work beyond the hour, but my camera battery conveniently died (seriously) when I tried to take pictures at the end of the day. This is about my real, honest life though, so I’ll tell you the truth. The room didn’t look like a perfect showroom when I called it quits. There were some things that I needed help with (like moving furniture) and other things that I just didn’t get to before Eric and I went out on our dinner date (oh, did I forget to mention that I got a date night too? I told you it was a magical day!). But you know what? It’s okay with me that I didn’t get everything totally finished. The point is, I got started, which isn’t something I could say on Thursday night.
The progress I made got me thinking and I have a theory. If I had a few hours one day a week with no kids around, I could not only have a clean house, but I could also fix the nation’s economic crisis and still have time to get my nails done before the kids came home. So who can I sign up to babysit?