And So It Goes

I doubt there will ever be a day when our house is 100% neat, clean, and organized. I just don't see it happening in my lifetime, apart from a massive influx of cash courtesy of the stock market or lottery or 'far off in the distance' distant relative dies leaving fortune to us. Ahem. Not likely. While I hope our meager portfolio (under $3k) does well, I hardly think our investing genius (and I use that term loosely) stretches far enough to amass wealth of Warren Buffet proportions.

What sparks this interest in tidiness, household organization, and general absence of clutter? It's my coffee table. No, not THAT one, in the room we actually USE...the OTHER one. The one I cleaned off late last week which has managed to stay clean and uncluttered. I've walked by it several times today and each time I thought to myself, "Aaaahhhh, that is so nice." And I look at our formal living room (which we actually live in, and it looks as such), and our formal dining room, that we actually eat in (and it looks as such), and, well, they are NOT tidy. I have 2 stacks of untended mail on the dining table, plus some of DD's artwork to be mailed as "art attacks" to the grandparents. Hmmmm. The tablecloth is mostly clean, a point in my favor, I think.

The living room is (as usual) strewn with the detritus of toys of DD's whirlwind of activity since waking. Of course I still have my two clutter points on the kitchen counter and IKEA cube thingy. And I don't want to think about my bedroom. *sigh* Someday, sometime, all the clothes WILL be clean, folded, and put away. Maybe. In about ten years...give or take a few.

Make no mistake, I have started to clean up at various times today. Then, DS escalates from a mild whining complaint cry to a full-out "I'm DONE and how DARE you leave me in this swing/exersaucer/playmat for so LONG!" cry. That necessitates feeding, holding, burping, changing, etc. At some point (a year) I know he will grow out of this, but it's kind of tiresome. And of course whatever toys I tidy away are pulled back out by DD, or she seeks out new ways to punish me methods of creating chaos. Does it ever end?

I need to hear from some parents of older kids out there, ye who lurk but do not comment. Does this end before they move out, or does the crap left everywhere just change? I have some reasonable hope that DH & I can teach these little ones to put stuff away (*gasp!*), but whether we can retrain ourselves is another story. Hmmmm. What do you think? Is there hope for us?