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| Gotta love the made bed surrounded by the mess! |
I have been fighting a losing battle. A battle which continually punches me down and discourages me and frustrates me. I have been fighting the battle of dirty dishes and messy bedrooms and piles of laundry. I am losing! I cannot keep up! I am one of those people that works hard to keep my house clean and tidy but with a 4, 2 and 5 month old underfoot, it really is a battle! I clean one room and breath a sigh of complete contentment and satisfaction and with motivation I go on to another room and clean it! YES! Then I return to the first room and it's dirty again. And not just a little bit either. This is SERIOUSLY happening in my home! It truly happens this way! Especially when it comes to my kids rooms and the kitchen.
Now before you think I'm not training my kids to clean up after themselves, they do and they do it well and I am VERY proud of my little mess-cleaner-uppers! But that's the key - they are LITTLE mess-cleaner-uppers. I'm not talking about THEIR size, I'm talking about the size of the MESS! You can see this in action in the picture - the bed was made (little mess) by my four-year-old but when asked to clean her room - its a BIG mess that she cannot accomplish by herself. After playing in their rooms for two hours or so, the mess is no longer a little mess. It is a BIG mess and while I clean up the BIG mess in the kitchen, the mess in their rooms grows.
Sigh.
HOWEVER! I am on a new mission! I had to share it with you because I KNOW I am not the only one who struggles with this! I read this post on The Better Mom called Survival KISS written by Cheryl from Treasures from a Shoebox (Wow! that was a lot of links but if you haven't checked these sites out - you should!). And suddenly God used what I read there and made me realize that if I could not keep up with something in my home, it was time to do it DIFFERENTLY! So I have a new motto:
If again and again I don't succeed, try, try a different way!
So I'm on a mission to help improve the disaster areas of my home. I'm starting with the kitchen.
Therefore.
I bought paper plates.
WHAT?!?! PAPER PLATES??? Now if you know my mom, she NEVER used paper plates unless we were going on a picnic. It saves money to wash plates. So I went shopping last night and lo and behold the paper plates were on sale - 45 plates for $2! That means for about $6 a month I can have a cleaner kitchen. This is completely breaking with my mindset of saving money. But no matter how many times I resolved to keep my kitchen clean and picked up I kept failing. So it was time to try a different method. And it is ok! Even my mom said so! :0)
Now my kids bedrooms! I already minimized my kids toys so having too many was not really the trouble. Well, maybe it still is but I do not want to GET RID of the toys my kids have. SOOOO ... I am changing our method!
Since I haven't finished the project yet - you will have to wait and see how I resolved this issue! Then I will have to figure out how to make the bathroom self-cleaning. HA HA HA. Somethings just have to be done the old-fashioned ways but maybe there are ways to make it easier?
In HIS Grip, 
I'm linked up with these lovely ladies today!
Love that you are putting some of Cheryl's suggestions in to practice! Thank you for being a part of our community :). Love your site! Blessings :)
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to hearing your solution! This is something I struggled with for quite awhile before finding what worked for us. The kids and I are now able to get all the toy, book, etc mess picked up in the whole house in less than 15 min which is so nice!
ReplyDeleteLoved this post and I'm so glad you were encouraged by the article! That bedroom is very cute, btw, even with the mess :) P.S. We STILL use paper plates for daytime meals and some evening meals (when we're running late). A dear expectant mommy friend with 5 children uses paper plates for every meal. It's her season C=
ReplyDeleteThank you ladies for your encouragement! Ruth at My Little Gifts From God - HOW did you get THAT accomplished? I know you have a lot of littles too! Hmmm ... Let me know if you write about it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this! It was great to see you encouraged by the article as much as I was. :) And I can totally relate with you! LOL :)
ReplyDeleteWay to go with the paper plates. I'm an el-cheapo too, but I think that's a smart idea to combat at least some of the mess in your house. I am looking forward to seeing your solution to the kids' messes because I need some insight. Blessings to you!
ReplyDeleteThank you for leaving a comment on my blog. I have three kids under the age of four too, so I struggle with the same issues. I start in the morning to clean everything and then I close the doors of some rooms. They are not allowed to play there that day. I keep the toys in different boxes and everyday they get a new box of toys. So I have just one box toys to clean up. Sometimes I still have a big mess in my house, but these things keep it a little under controle.
ReplyDeleteTrough Christ alone,
Marjolein from the Netherlands
p.s. LOVE your blog! I'm almost a pastorswife too(within three months), so I learn much from you!
I should do a blog post on what has finally worked for us with the toy mess. It would be kind of long as a comment and would be a lot better with pics. I'll make a note that I need to blog about it soon.
ReplyDelete