Once upon a time....

[tnaallen]

I use to consider myself an organized person. When it was just dh and I, the house would be tidy, even though both of us worked. I'd make daily post-it notes with checklists that would be completed by the end of the day. All the drawers and cupboards were neat, as well as closets.

After child 1 things got a little off, but no worries...naptime would solve everything. Child 2 comes along, and now we are getting a little more off key. Naptime doesn't work the way it use to since child 1 is still awake. Still..there is after bedtime. I'd say it was after #3 when it all went out the window. Of course, we had a rocky first year with him, so if anyone was fed or dressed in a day, we called that a win. However, things never recovered from there. Too many toys, extra clothes, kids into my drawers for tape, and closets for hiding places. And to top it all off...a 4th child. Seriously, there is no hope now. I make lists at night for the next day, then feel accomplished if I even remember I made the list by morning. If enough laundry to clothe everyone gets washed and dried, that's an accomplishment. Nevermind that it sits in baskets, longing to be folded and put away, yet just sits there being sifted through day after day. It doesn't help that no on has clothes in the closet they actually sleep in. The girls share a room, but on uses an underbed drawer system, while the other uses drawers in another room's closet. Dh sleeps in the boys room, but his clothes are in a 5 foot tall mound in a different closet. While both boys sleep with me, yet their clothes reside in two opposite rooms.

I can not tell you how many nights I've set out to organize one thing; my desk, a closet, school books. Yet, it's all too overwhelming. We moved here a year ago, but are still under renovations to make the smaller place fit us. The rooms the kids sleep in now will eventually all be painted and switched around, so there is no motivation to organize it now. Does that sound bad? I tried to organize my desk, but since the storage places I would put a lot of the randomly accumulated things aren't built yet, I get stuck at drawer one.

So venting about my "once upon a time" organized life, somehow makes me feel better about sitting here doing nothing to clean up.

And as for any of you with MORE than 4 kids I have NO idea how you do it. Housekeeper?

[ValiantJoy07]

No advice. I just went through in a nesting spree and got things all sorted out and nicer, but I still walk into a room or get up in the morning and the kids have pulled out paper and craft supplies and found boxes that were out for recycling and covered the entire house in different zones of ...play... for their "town". And I know they're playing, and I hate to be a stick in the mud. But recycled play objects just looks like the house is covered in trash. Trash with stuffed animals and random kitchen things on boxes and books and clothes and doll clothes, and car ramps and wood and marbles, in all crevices of the house.

You can have every thing as organized as possible, but the presence of kids just seems to breed ....every thing being everywhere. I would imagine adding a lack of closet organization set up and a long list of "To Do" projects waiting on ...time to do it. Yikes!

[Little Forest]

Oh my word, I always had to work to be semi organized as it does not come naturally to me, and I have by been blown away by how impossible it is to maintain any semblence of organization since children arrived. I have been blown away by how time consuming daily routine tasks are to sort out the children and house and by how my efforts are constantly sabotaged.

Thank you for your post! All my commisseration!
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[Tasmanian Saint]

YK, it's kind if nice to hear that even organized people have this problem...

Look at it this way: at least you have the memories of past organization - some of us don't even have that...

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