an organized mess

my house is cluttered.  Always.  No matter that there's plenty of room for the 5 of us as well as all our various personal items, there's still stuff everywhere.  We may have 2 cabinets for the sole purpose of holding DVD's, but there are still DVDs crammed (without cases of course!) next to the DVD player, on top of the DVD player, on top of the speaker, and on the mantle where we've placed them after removing them from the steely grip of the baby, after finally managing to catch her as she ran down the hall with her prize, cackling all the way.  Of course, we could put them in the DVD binder, which has plenty of open slots, but nooooo.  they go on the mantle, where they will likely sit for weeks until one decides to look thru them, usually in an attempt to find the very movie they are, at that moment, desperately wanting to watch.  They will search for 30 minutes to find that ONE movie, ignoring the vast piles of movies sitting within reach because those aren't THE ONE.  I'm as guilty of this as the rest of my family. 

There's clothes spread throughout the house.  Now, I can at least say that none of them are mine or my husband's.  We do manage to keep our clothing in our room.  The children however, well that's a different story.  And the items I find make no sense.  I find my son's undies in the living room on a daily basis.  I have no idea why, since his room is downstairs and that's where he gets dressed, and I don't recall ever seeing him remove any undies in the living room, but there they are, stuffed under the end table, on the couch, or in the middle of the wide open floor.  WHY??  And it is usually only undies, occasionally a pair of PJ pants or somethig.

Of course there are toys.  There's 3 children in this house.  Enough said.

Try as I may, I don't think my house will ever be clean and stay clean for more than a few hours at a time, and I'm lucky if I get that long.  So I will settle for organized.  How can a messy house be organized, you ask?  Oh believe me, if it can be done, I'm the woman to do it.  Take my craft room for example.  I have an entire bookcase (7 foot tall by 3.5 foot wide I believe) and a 9 cube shelf all dedicated to yarn.  It looks like it is just thrown on there haphazardly,  but I assure you that is no the case.  I know almost to the skein exactly what yarns I have, at least by looks if not by name, and can grab it on the first try.  It is an organized mess.  Part of the reason it LOOKS messy is because some are skeins I pulled from the center and they are half used so they are flat and pulled apart, some are balls of yarn that have a hard time fitting on the shelf without rolling off, and some are small hanks or cakes that are hard to stack, but a knitter would know instantly that they are arranged by not only weight but fiber content and brand as well.  Some is even sorted by color (I have an entire cube devoted to purple sock yarn.). 

My closet is pretty messy, but I hope to tackle it tomorrow.  It shouldn't take long, I just need to redo the stacks and re-hang the clothes my 4 year old pulled off the hangers on the lower rack when she was trying to hide from her brother.  Even when it is organized, it doesn't look it because we have one shelf that runs the length of the wall right in the middle, and racks on top and below it.  Since we have an abundance of tshirts and jeans, they don't all fit in the drawers so they go on the shelf.  I have a stack for Scott's jeans, shorts, my tshirts, my long sleeved shirts, my tanks, my shorts, my jeans, and my "pants I swear I will fit back into as soon as I diet some more" (Ladies, you know what I'm talking about!)  Scot's tshirts and our pj/sweats etc go in the dresser.  barely.  He has 2 full drawers of tshirts, I think it is time to clean some of them out.  But once again, even though it looks messy, it isn't.

I'm terrible at cleaning.  I'm slow, I get distracted very easily (SQUIRREL!) and I usually end up leaving one task half done while I start working on another.  I'll be loading the dishwasher, notice a pair of boys undies on the kitchen floor (agan, WHY??) so I go to take them into the laundry room, where I remember the clothes I washed the night before, so I go to put them in the dryer, which is of course still full, so I take the clean clothes to our room to fold.  Meanwhile, the dishwasher is still open and half loaded and the washer is still full of wet clothes.  by then the baby is awake, so I forget all the chores I was working on to tend her.  Ahhh, a day in my life.  However, when it comes to organizing, it is a different story.  It may take me a while, mainly because I pause to look at things and sort things, but if I have the time I need without distractions from my family, I'm quite adept at organizing.  Meg's closet is an example, there's a drawer for everything and everything has it's place.  I spent over an hour in there last week, and she's managed so far to keep it clean. 

My favorite example of my organized mess is from High School.  I had forgotten a pom pom at home and needed it for the game that night, so Dad said he'd bring it if I told him where it was.  I told him it was under my red sweater, next to the big box, on the floor by the top right hand side of my bed, next to the green combat boot.  I could literally hear him rolling his eyes over the phone, but it was right where I said it was. 

I will likely spend part of my day organizing tomorrow, since my room is starting to annoy me, and I need to find a spot for all the paperback books that are littering the house.  Just like the DVD's, they are everywhere.