GIVING IN TO THE CLUTTER

I hate clutter. Actually, I loathe it. It makes me feel uncentered, crazed, cranky, you know, all those unpleasant feelings.

I have been this way ever since I was a little girl. I am thinking this is because my Mom was the same way. Everything had a place in our house, Toys were in the toy box, clothes were in the hamper or folded and put in drawers, mail was gone through the day it arrived, bills payed, junk thrown away. You get the idea. And if it so happened there was something that was found that did not have a place, it was thrown away, given to a friend, or given to the Goodwill.

This worked well as it kept our house from getting out of control with random "things", clutter, junk, etc. I am proud to say that growing up, our house was clutter free, and for the most part, always picked up and looking nice. There were no clutterbugs (people who enjoy creating clutter) in our house.

Since I grew up in this type of environment, I sort of was inclinded to create the same type of environment in my own home. To date, this had proved to be VERY difficult.


First of all, the wonderful Mr. Shelton (whom I love dearly) is the perfect definition of a clutterbug. One that looks at mail, then throws it on the counter to sit, one that takes off his dirty clothes and throws them next to the laundry basket - not in it, and one who makes a sandwich for lunch and leaves the mess thinking he will just clean it up later. But the craziest thing of all, is that he never wants to part with anything. If you can believe this, we have two closets in our master bedroom and HE takes up 80% of both of them!! Why, you may ask? He cannot seem to find a way to part with any of his flannels from the '90's, old jeans that have holes in them and simply can never be worn again, and his old work suits from back in the day when he was a 9-5'er. (all of which he has not worn in YEARS.)


So, as you can see, my husband is not the greatest in keeping the house clutter free. He is a clutterbug at heart. But what is worse is that I have 4 clutterbug kids to deal with too. I am not faulting the kids at all, as kids in general are just clutterbugs - All of the art projects, homework assignments, toys, clothes, pets, stuffed animals, dolls, etc. are littered all over our house. I have a playroom that was supposed to house all of said "stuff", but it is simply overflowing. I am finding it more and more difficult to find places to store it all. Here is a gander at what I am dealing with.



Mr. Shelton's Fax machine, which he decided to place right in the kitchen (much to my excitement), and you will notice next to the phone the stacks of mail, paperwork, etc that I attempted to organize a bit in the handy organization thingys from Target.







That is not the worst of it - here is a gander of what is in the cupboards and on top of the cupboards in that same area. This is my attempt at hiding all of the mounds and mounds of paperwork that Mr. Shelton has not gotten around to going through quite yet. I cannot throw any of it away, and when I bring up the possibilty of going though it I get the I-am-up-to-my-ears-in-work-and-don't-have-the-time look. So I have decided to just stop asking, so here it all sits. Waiting to be read, paid, thrown away, whatever needs to be done with it all.





Now here is the saddest photo of all. This represents my giving up on controlling the clutter. This is my china cabinet, which is in what is supposed to be my formal dining room, which has turned into a make shift storage unit. Above (from left to right) my breast pump which I have long since been done using, a box full of color crayons/markers, Olivia's baby bath that she stopped using months ago, my Mom's sterling silver utensils that were passed down to me as a wedding gift, A bag filled with Ava's dance recital costumes, and last but not least, the kids hermit crabs that they had to have and have not played with in weeks. Oh, and on the left hand side smooshed between the china cabinet and wall - (bottom to top) Huge jug of canola oil Mr. Shelton purchased last year for his industrial sized deep fryer, photo albums from when I was a child, toaster oven Mr. Shelton bought me for Christmas that never did get mounted underneath the cupboards in the kitchen, and an empty camera box.

Wowza. OUT.OF.CONTROL. Right?

Clutter, clutter, clutter, and MORE clutter! It is everywhere. I am surprised I don't have reacurring nightmares about it all. I think it may be that I am simply becoming accustomed to it all. [sigh] I guess I have battled with Mr. Shelton, and the kids over this for long enough, and have finally come to the conclusion that I am simply outnumbered, and I need to just give in to the clutter.

At least for the time being. Maybe over the next few years I can work on Mr. Shelton, and slowly convert him over to a clutter free lifestyle. And once the kids get older, things should become more manageable.

A girl can hope, right?