I have been married to my wonderful husband, Richard, for eight years. We have the two most adorable little boys in the world (well, I may be a little biased). Our life is chaotic to say the least. I work full time at a big box store and my husband is a manager at a retail super center. With two boys, ages 4 and 2, our house gets from pristine to pig sty in less than five minutes!! This blog is my journey of attempting to keep my "Life. More Organized."
When Richard and I first got married, we had been in the process of purchasing a home a few towns away from where we grew up. Complications kept arising in the building of the house, but we were patient for a while. We spent the first five months of our marriage living with my parents while we waited for the house to finish (not something I recommend if you want to keep your sanity). I finally hit my limit and wanted to keep my relationship with my mom (apparently no matter how old you are, if you live at home, mom always wins!), so we got an apartment.
This was the most beautifully, cute, little apartment you ever saw! It was just a one bedroom, but it was brand new and we were right next to the gorgeous, resort like pool and spa. At the time I had just started to work at my still current job, and was only working part time, around 8 hours a week. I didn't have much to do but clean. And boy did I ever clean!!! This is where I like to say my obsesive cleaning disorder started.
The apartment was decorated like it was the model. I love to decorate!!! I cleaned everyday. I dusted and vacuumed and scrubbed. And when I say I vacuumed, I mean I VACUUMED ! I vacuumed the carpet and the furniture. We owned a green microfiber couch and when I vacuumed it, there would be nice lines of where the brush went up and down.
It got to the point that I couldn't stand it if my coffee table was moved slightly by an inch or if a friend came over and sat on my couch then left a butt print when they stood up. I had to take pillows off of the couch before people came over so they wouldn't sit on them. Everything had to be perfect all the time!
After three years of living in the apartment, we gave up on our house we were waiting for and found a row house in our home town. I found the houses by accident. I was actually trying to go to model homes of the houses behind the row house, but saw the line of houses and was intrigued. My mom and I went into the row house model and I fell in love! I always imagined I would move to a big city and lead a high class lifestyle (I can dream right?), and this house felt like that dream in my small hometown! I told my husband I wanted it and he let us buy (he would give me the world if he could).
Our house is the second door from the right. It was three stories.
This house was perfect for the two of us; it had no yard to up keep and was a two bedroom, one and a half bath.After only 10 months of living in our new home, we welcomed our first son, Landon (whom we were told was going to be a daughter, but that's a whole other story!). Here is where my obsessive cleaning and a child started to collide. At this time I was working full time and having a little baby in the house was becoming a challenge to keep up on the house work. Two years after Landon, we welcomed our second little man, Braden. I thought one child was difficult to keep up with, I had now idea how much more work was involved with two (I would not trade it for anything).
Our quaint little house became much more crowded with two little boys roaming around. While the house itself was a decent size, 1500 square feet, it was spread out onto three floors. The first floor was the garage and a small living room which we never used. The second floor was our kitchen and family room with a small powder room; this was the floor we were in all the time. And third floor were the two bedrooms, both the same size, a small office nook, a laundry closet and a full bath.
When Braden was born, we converted the small office nook into a nursery. It had just enough space for his crib and a dresser. We were afraid the new baby would wake up older brother if they were in the same room. Once Braden could stand up we moved him into the bedroom with Landon, because the office nook was open to the balcony of the stairs.
By this time I had given up all hope on keeping a clean home. I got to be lazy. I think my side of the bedroom was covered in the same clean laundry for over a year. My husband was great during this time. He would clean the house like crazy. It was almost like we had switched roles; he was now becoming a cleaning fanatic.
Somehow, by the Grace of God, we were able to purchase a new home and sell our first. We moved into an amazing new home with a large yard (hard to find in our neck of the woods in a new lot). We gained 1,000 square feet! We moved into this home in August of 2012. I cannot believe it has been a year already! And I am just realizing that I don't have any pictures of it yet....gotta fix that.
This past year I have been figuring out how to balance my obsessive cleaning extreme with my busy life. I have realized that I cannot control everything, and my kids, as messy as they are, are the biggest blessing in my life. I have discovered how to live with organized chaos. This is my LIFE. MORE ORGANIZED.
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