When every room is a disaster...

[GrowingInGrace]

I'm starting to get on edge right now. I have the dining room, living room, play room, my bedroom, the kitchen, and the downstairs a total disaster because I bought the new bunk bed and also a new entertainment center. So all the old furniture had to be moved around and all the junk had to be moved as well and put somewhere temporarily. Every available space was used. Now I've got to deal with the aftermath...

Laundry needs to be done, the kids need to be kept busy and outta my hair in order for me to do anything. But I can't even begin to start. The kids are at the cluttered dining room table fighting over art supplies. Dh is at his moms to be with her during a showing for a potential buyer.

I'm getting increasingly stressed out. And I can feel my skin starting to crawl with irritation over everything...

I feel like I will never get this house functioning properly. It's too small for us, but I don't want to move to a bigger house. I want to live with what we have. Everyone in my family has a much bigger house than we do, but we can't afford to buy a bigger house. I'm trying to get rid of as much junk as possible, but even that takes TIME and EFFORT and NO KIDS to be around.

And later today, dh might be going to a friend's house to a bbq. We were both invited, but there is no way I can go with the house a disaster like it is. We are tripping over stuff left and right and there is no room to play anywhere. I spent half the day outside with the kids yesterday and then I went out with my neighbor and her friends at the last minute for dinner. I can't go anywhere else until this house is put back together.

But I don't know where to start. I'm really just :crazy.

If I don't make real progress this weekend, I'm going to be up a creek without a paddle for next week. I want to wave a magic wand and it to be done already....

Thanks for listening. I just needed to vent.

[The Tickle Momster]

just wanted to give you a hug. My house is like that right now too. We reorged last weekend and I did 4 loads of laundry on Wed. Have been out of the house or on GCM :O since then and We are leaving in an hour to be gone most of today.

If you put a movie in, will that give you 30 minutes of uninterrupted time? Can you send the kids out back safely while you work? I do 15 minutes of work, then 15 minutes with the kids. You'd be amazed at what you can get done in 15 minutes.

[GrowingInGrace]

I decided to start working on the playroom. So that I can send the kids in there when I need to work on other rooms. I also have an extra large black garbage bag for all the books/toys I'm going to be donating to goodwill. Right now they are watching Barney. But I think it's over.

Dh is also bringing me home some bankers boxes. I'm going to take the remaining toys and split them in half. I will rotate them in and out every 3-6 months or so. Hopefully that will work too.

[Piper2]

:raise Another disaster here.

DH and I just sat down the other night and planned to do a little bit each day for the next couple of weeks or so, focusing first on the entertainment center, so the cable guy can get to it on Thursday (we're upgrading to digital cable), and also to clear a path for the bug guy to come for his quarterly treatment sometime next week. Our sunroom is a TOTAL wreck, and we need to get it so that we can start doing school in there again and start using the treadmill again.

Our challenge is going to be keeping things in control once we clean them. DH is planning on putting hardwood floors in the living room and hallway next month, so if we don't get the rest of the house clean, we're not going to be able to survive living around the living room for a week or so.

[JoyGal]

:hug2

Here are a few ideas that work for me:

Clean everything up after the kids go to bed. You might be up for some extra time, but you will get the amount of quiet time that you need in order to get everything done.

Similar to the 15 minute idea above, take a few minutes to do as much work as you can. Start in one corner of one room and have that little are be your goal for the amount of time set aside. Then, after each increment, work on each shelf or table top. This works amazingly well for me because I usually end up doing a lot more work than I intend to in the allotted time. I'll take the times between tv shows or commercials, while dd is getting ready for bed, or just after she goes to bed. The trick is, to reward yourself for each completed time. That's why commercial times work great (if you watch tv ;) because then you have a few minutes to sit down and relax and take your mind off the messies. After the kids go to bed is a great time too because you can pop some brownies in the oven and make your own game of sorts to clean up as much of the living room as you can so that you and dh can sit down and watch a movie or sit outside on the porch and have fresh desert.

Let the kids help. We've been doing this for as long as I can remember. I'll give dd a bag to help clean, and we'll put on some music. One song is to run around the house gathering her things into the bag, the next song is putting the things away in her bedroom.

Don't worry mama, it's overwhelming right now, but soon your house will be all put back together again :yes

[GrowingInGrace]

I really do need to get it together this weekend. I have an extra child on Mondays, so then there is four children here. So it's kinda not an option to work on it after the kids are down for the night. Especially since I'm wiped out by the time they are ready for bed, and I am not too far behind...

The playroom is coming around, but I still have crates of stuff that need homes. Especially since I took back one of the large cabinets in the family room for my scrapbooking supplies.

I've moved so many things around and around this house, it makes my head spin. My craft area has had no less than five different locations in this house, no lie.

My reward for making a bit of progress is coming on here for a bit. Now my time is over....

[GrowingInGrace]

This is so exhausting!!! Though I'm mostly done with the play room (5 hours later), I still have work to do in there. I filled up 2 bags of junk for donation. But there is still so much. I am also having a hard time deciding which toys to remove and take out for a few months. They are all so fun!

My lower back aches. I'm sleepy. I'm vegging out for a few minutes while I drink some coffee.

On the upside, dh did take the girls out earlier and just took the took older ones out for another few hours. So at least I got that going for me.

I will definitely take pictures when I'm done.

[GrowingInGrace]

I worked the whole weekend and got some progress. Not as much as I'd like, but some. The playroom is done. The dining room is mostly done (we can at least eat at the table without moving much stuff). My desktop is was clear, but I have to clear it again. We can sit on the couches again in the family room, but there is a pile of boxes full of stuff I have to go through behind the couch. The hallway has some boxes in it to be sorted. Some of it is going downstairs, some of it is going out of the house.

Although now that we have my neighbor's son today and it's raining today. I know the play room will be trashed by the end of the day. I did take pictures of it before they were in it though. So as soon as I can get dh to transfer them to the computer, I will upload them to show the playroom. I might even take a picture after they trash it, just for fun.

I got rid of 5 bags/boxes of stuff. It feels really good to jettison this stuff. Even though I have so much more to go, it's some progress. And, since we have the new entertainment center and the new bunk beds, I won't be needing to move stuff around in those rooms anymore. No more trying to configure beds into a good position, no more switching the furniture from the play room to the bedroom and vice versa.

Progress is progress no matter how small. (Okay, I know I did a fair amount now that I'm listing it all down, but it still feels like a lot left to do).

[hey mommy]

ITU.. I feel the exact same way. I was in tears last night over all of it.. DH just told me to 'be strong'. Gee, that's helpful.. How about cleaning our bedroom for me instead?

I'm still unpacking and don't know where to put anything.. It's way to overwhelming and I've spent the past 2 weeks trying not to crawl into bed to just forget about it all...

[GrowingInGrace]

ITU.. I feel the exact same way. I was in tears last night over all of it.. DH just told me to 'be strong'. Gee, that's helpful.. How about cleaning our bedroom for me instead?

I'm still unpacking and don't know where to put anything.. It's way to overwhelming and I've spent the past 2 weeks trying not to crawl into bed to just forget about it all...


I've wondered myself why dh can't fathom cleaning the bedroom. But I guess I can't complain, he does do dishes, and laundry.

I have had days where I HAVE crawled back into bed to forget about the mess...

[hey mommy]

Oh, he did "his" room. He upacked and organized the computer room. Oh joy. He does ONE stupid room. I get 6 others. :rolleyes And he wonders why I'm so overwhelmed.

And he doesn't do laundry or dishes or anything. I have to beg him just to take out the trash...