Messy Much?

Are you a messy person? If so, do people know you're a messy person? I've been disorganized, cluttered, and a bit careless with my things since I was about 19 years old. I could break it all down into why or how I became this person, but that would take us too far off track. The bottom line is that I wasn't always like this.

Can you tell the cat gets more use out of the office than we do?

I was the girl who begged her mom to help rearrange her bedroom once a month. I made my bed over and over, sometimes doubling up my comforters because I wanted my bed to look like it came out of a magazine. I had a place for every. little. thing. Down to tiny compartments for each type of hair tie.

However, for the past 7 years, I have been completely different. Sure, I go on a cleaning spree from time to time, but it usually ends with me passing out from exhaustion and bloated from too much caffeine. I have a bad habit of scrubbing the floors before wiping down countertops, even though all the cleaning blogs tell you to work from top to bottom (it only makes sense). I also have a horrible habit of simply not maintaining a clean home.

Anyway, I have always said that your home is a reflection of what's going on inside of you. I believe it wholeheartedly. When Justin left for Afghanistan, I was 13 weeks pregnant. I didn't have to work full-time, and I usually had at least 3 days off each week. I told myself that I was going to be a kick-ass housewife by the time he returned. Why? Because living alone would force me to confront my issues with organization and upkeep, since there would be no one there to blame but me. My goals were lofty, along with a nesting phase that only made them loftier.

But I was wrong.

Yes, sadly I lived about a year like this. 

My messy-ness was exacerbated by a lack of energy, coupled with the incessant desire to start, and half-way finish, a bajillion little projects. I managed to paint two sets of dressers, a crib, a nightstand, a foyer, living room, kitchen, and bedroom. I made a window valence and added shelving to the nursery closet. That was all well and good, but I wasn't taming the chaos before adding more stuff to the house. I kept masking the mess with tons of projects and ideas from Pinterest. I wasn't preparing myself for a house with a baby- I was merely decorating the disorder.

When Justin got home, the house really was crazy. It took him all of 3 days before he sat on the floor and asked who we could get to babysit while we tackled the issue of cleaning the shared spaces (that's excluding the entire upstairs, people!).

I've really started asking myself what I can live without, and because of that, I'm slowly getting things put away. I've reached a point recently, where I've been so overwhelmed by clutter, I'd just as soon throw all that we have away, and start over with nothing. Having too much stuff really is an indication that something internally is a bit off balance. For me, I think it's strongly related to my really awful time-management skills. It's also forcing me to recognize that our money could have been put to better use. It's acknowledging the amount of energy it will take to both sort through the chaos and make choices to keep those things (if so, having to ask myself how and why it is of use to me), and then find a way to give it a home.

Is there an area in your home that needs a little TLC? Do you have any go-to websites, blogs, or books for organizing? My favorite one (that I promise has helped tremendously) is this one.