Take this mess and shove it.

Apparently I’m goal oriented.

And I like a challenge.

Maybe the fact that the marathon is over has left me with the need for a new mission.

And that’s why I’m on the organizational tear.

That could be part of it.

I’m sure there are plenty of you out there who think I’m on some bipolar, manic, cleaning high.

And that any day now I’ll crash.

And the house will return to SHS (shithole status).

But I’m not bipolar.

And I’m never returning to SHS.

Ever.

A lot of it has to do with the very small amount of time I have available to me.

There is a lot of crap I want to get done every day.

So I want to make the most of every minute that I have.

But I’ve been spinning my wheels, wasting massive amounts of time (and energy) every day because my house was a total disaster.

And I finally just snapped last week. I couldn’t take it anymore.

Every day before working out, I was spending anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes searching for my stuff.

Yes.

20 minutes looking for socks. Sports bras. Water bottles. My ipod. My Y card.

I’ll be conservative in my estimate.

Ten minutes a day x 7 days a week is a lot of fucking time. Over an hour. Wasted.

And that was just for my workout stuff.

Any time I wanted to do anything, there was a search mission involved.

Getting the kids dressed to go out the door was also a nightmare.

It wasn’t so bad in the summer.

In the summer, the only thing we had to search for was shoes before we left the house.

But 3 or 4 kids unable to find a matching pair of shoes usually takes five to ten minutes.

Sometimes I just screwed the shoes.

Number 7 attended many baseball practices in bare feet.

But the shoe search added another 30 – 60 minutes a week.

Now that it’s cold outside,

well,

forget it.

Searching for shoes, and hats, and gloves compounds the problem exponentially.

Then there were the papers.

Constantly looking for papers.

Number 4’s reading packet for October disappeared.

And then last week Number 3’s homework disappeared.

When your house is such a mess that there is crap everywhere, it makes finding a misplaced item much more difficult.

I had to write a note to his teacher and to Number 4’s teacher and tell them we had no idea what happened to the papers.

It was embarrassing.

So on top of searching for the papers, I had to take the time to write an embarrassing note about the case(s) of the missing homework.

Then there was the falling.

The mudroom was so out of control that the kids were literally tripping and falling when they were trying to get ready to go.

It all just became too much.

So that’s why I’m on this mission.

And I’m not stopping until I’m done.

Do you know how much easier it is to keep your house picked up when it’s organized?

There’s no comparison.

My mudroom is still clean.

So is my dining room.

We have eaten dinner in there as a family 3 nights in a row.

I love it.

The kids love it.

Number 7 is still adjusting.

She still goes in there every day and belts out a couple rounds of  Happy Birthday.

I knew the chaos was affecting me.

But I didn’t think it was bothering the kids.

Yesterday when Number 3 came home from school and walked into the mudroom and screamed,

“IT’S STILL CLEAN IN HERE!!! MOM, OUR HOUSE IS SO AWESOME!!!”,

well,

I felt both great and horrible at the same time.

I knew I had been adding stress to my own life, but the realization that I have been adding it to all their lives by allowing things to get so out of control did not feel good.

So I started all this for my family and for myself.

I never intended to be any sort of inspiration.

But two days ago I got this message, along with the attached pictures:

Holy inspiration to get my shit done! You have lit a fire under my butt. Start time 12:30….end time 5:00, with a 1 hour elliptical workout during that time too! (708 calories burned!!!) All of this shit is put away, washed or not in my house anymore! Thank you, for challenging all of us to be/do better!

And you better believe that after dinner, dishes will be washed! and I will get my calendar organized BEFORE I watch my junk tv tonight! Shit it getting done, and I like it!

Before

After

Wow.

Not just the cleaning. That’s a seriously big-ass kitchen.

And then yesterday, I got this:

Hi Susie! I don’t know if you remember me from our messages this summer, but I wanted to say you once again inspired me! Now that I’m living healthier (like you), I decided to take your lead & start organizing my house.

I live in a two-story, two-bedroom townhouse with my boyfriend. It’s a narrow place but big enough for us. We have this closet under the stairs that is huge — easily 12 feet deep — and becomes a catch all for the crap we don’t have other room for haha. Well today I decided to just pull it all out of the closet so I had no choice but to clean it! I had to take 2 pictures bc the closet is so big so I’m sorry about sending 4 pics but I wanted to show you what you inspired!!!

Once again. Thank you SOOO much!!! 🙂

Before

  After

    Before

After

How cool is that?

Now listen, I’m not judging anyone.

But what I can say, is that the quality of our lives has improved because of this.

A lot.

My husband said last night that the past 5 days have been life changing.

Yes.

Life changing.

So maybe consider tackling just one little project.

This whole thing for me is not about being perfect.

It’s about improving the quality of my life.

And my kids’ lives.

It’s about investing a little time now to save much more time down the road.

Give it a shot.

I think you’ll be surprised by how a little change can turn into a seriously big one!

I know, because it happened to me.

In fact it’s still happening.

WAAAAAAA HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Life is good!

Now go organize something.

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