As an avid reader of Better Homes and Gardens, and an obsessed fan of Martha Stewart, I strive to keep my home perfectly organized and neatly arranged. This was much easier before I had to share my house with 3 small people and one man. Through the years, I have evolved into some sort of cleaning maniac that has surely scarred my children for life with my rules of neatness. Of coarse, my house is never perfectly clean but it's not because I don't try. I'm convinced that I have some form of OCD that will soon have me turning the lock on the door 7 times and tapping my foot twice before I can leave the house with my 12 bottles of hand sanitizer and packs of individually wrapped plastic ware just in case we are caught eating out unexpectedly. Unfortunately, I have imposed my craziness onto my wonderful husband, who now spends his afternoons off running around the house yelling at the kids to make everything perfect before I get home from work. As soon as I walk through the door, I will get some sort of warning like "Emma didn't hang her clothes up" or "I haven't had a chance to unload the dishwasher." Almost always, the warning is followed by a child crying or yelling that it isn't fair that their chore is so much harder than any other chore in the house. So, this is my life. I would like to think that my need for complete organization makes me corky like Monica on Friends, but I'm sure that my neurotic issues are obnoxious at best. A couple of weeks ago, I had an epiphany. It was a Saturday morning, and I had the kids clean their rooms and put away their clothes. We had breakfast, and I cleaned the kitchen while Derek made the bed. Everything in the house looked fine, so the kids went downstairs to play and Derek sit down to watch TV. And, what did I do? Well, I went through the house reorganizing closets, smoothing out wrinkles in the beds and cleaning mirrors and counter tops. That's when I realized that even when the house is neat, it isn't "perfect" until I do it myself. So, my new year's resolution is to stop making my family crazy and just suffer in silence. I will no longer expect them to do the things that I will do over even though they are perfectly fine. Of coarse, that is a huge step to take, so I have spent the past few days taking necessary precautions to keep from losing my mind in the process. After careful planning and cleaning out every closet, cabinet and drawer in the house, I had a check list of things that would make every inch of our house organized and functional. So, with Luke at Nana's house and Derek sleeping after a long night at work, the girls and I headed to Charlotte to visit the happiest place for a neurotic neat freak shopoholic like myself- Ikea. It was wonderful. After an afternoon of shopping, we came home with files, boxes, baskets, shelves and any thing else you can think of to organize every inch of the house. I spent Saturday night (well into Sunday morning) turning my linen closet into an arts, crafts and school supplies closet. I reorganized the laundry room and bathroom cabinets. And, my kitchen cabinets are so perfectly arranged that I am the only person that will dare to move one dish- because no one else will ever be able to re work the puzzle that I have created. There are still several little projects to complete, but when I am finished, our house will look like a page from my favorite magazine. It will be perfect. Now, if I can just keep it that way...
Yes, I know I have a problem. But admitting it is the first step!
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