Making Space Mondays, Link Party #5

This Monday is all about Oops decluttering, or Out Of Place Stuff. This is the first month we'll be making our way through the whole set of acronyms, too, so I'm excited. Just a little reminder, here are the acronyms I use and what they stand for:

Oops is Out Of Place Stuff

E.T.'s CUP is Easy Trash and Clean Up Place

PITS is Pass IT Stuff

NAPs and MAPs is Needs A Place or Make A Place

and lastly

TLC is Tedious Longsuffering Care

Each Monday I focus on writing about one of these acronyms and what it means to me, and this is the first Monday of the month so my focus is OOPS or Out Of Place Stuff. This Monday I want to share a little secret with you...more like a confession.

I am a horribly messy mom!! There...I said it. The cat's out of the bag and the truth is, it's a very ugly, dingy cat who claws at people and never purrs. I am a MESS. I've always got something in my hands, whether it be my laptop or a baby on my hip. I'm setting a drink down so that I can switch hips. I'm changing a diaper and jump up to answer the phone, meaning to get back and put it in the trash. The kids are sprawled out on the floor with a half dozen pillows finishing a math lesson and Abby wants to help with lunch, so there ends up being workbooks and pencils everywhere. By the end of the day, we're all wiped out with no energy left and we leave dishes to be done later. By the end of the week things are looking bad and it's a little chaotic. That dish that keeps getting overlooked when we quickly do dishes is stinking up the whole front of the house. We're tripping over toys, weaving our way through an L-shaped hallway and crash on our unmade beds! Oh, and the toilet wasn't cleaned last week. Has it been two? No, we cleaned it when so and so came over. Oh my, that's been like a month ago! Well, at least Josh dropped in one of those Scrubbing Bubbles self-cleaning pucks.

Oh yes! This is my life and my struggle. I'm a mom who can't function in chaos and I fight it daily.

When it comes to decluttering a room or closet or drawer, there are always OOPS things involved at my house, but when I start a project like I'm about to do, I don't actually start with that room. I start with picking up my messes. I start with doing the daily grind stuff like dishes and laundry or tidying the living room. Decluttering a room is actually a bit of fun for me because I just can't wait to see the end result, but in reality it would all fall hopelessly apart if I didn't backtrack and fix the messes that I made before sinking my hands into a project.

OOPS decluttering starts with the boring. It starts with what we have hated doing since we were kids. It starts by picking up your messes. I want to introduce you to my Chaos To Calm In 1 Hour posts. These are some of my favorite posts because this is exactly how my life is. When someone like me chooses to be a homeschooling mom, they are also choosing to live with extra mess! We have more art, more books, more workbooks, more office supplies, more projects, more dress-up clothes, more pencils and erasers, more science projects, and more odd things like a huge white board, than normal moms. Add to that the many, many more hours that all of my kids are home and have the access to this stuff, and you can just imagine.

Chaos To Calm in 1 Hour, The Master Bedroom
Chaos To Calm in 1 Hour, a Child's Room
Chaos To Calm in 1 Hour, The Kitchen
Chaos To Calm in 1 Hour, The Living Room
Chaos To Calm in 2 Hours, The Whole House

OOPS in the Laundry Room, May's Project

I've decided to focus on one room a month to make it a little easier to write about. I usually hop around, doing whichever project demands my attention, but this will make it easier to find my photos and organize my thoughts while still homeschooling full-time and nursing my baby.

I wanted it to be a small room with a big impact, so I chose to start with the laundry room. OOPS decluttering is pretty obvious in this room, isn't it? Catch up on laundry. You think I have a perfect system? With matching baskets and home-made soap?

Think again! (All except the home-made soap. I do have that-surprisingly easy!)

People, all three of you that read this, I need this as much as anyone! So...are you with me? Let's dive in there and clean out those laundry rooms! It'll likely take me all week to catch up on laundry for OOPS, and I'll be back next week for E.T.'s Trash (Easy Trash and Clean Up Place). And who knows, maybe I'll chip out a little time to write more than one post this week!!

Oh, and as soon as I can, I'll be posting a link-up that will be on-going for anyone wanting to show off their laundry room.