I have always wanted to have an immaculate house. You know what I’m talking about…every single thing is in order and organized, the kitchen table is spotless and you know right where to find your car keys when they’ve seemed to have grown legs and wandered into the deep dark abyss. A picturesque living space straight out of Southern Living.
I have many friends who are amazingly talented house keepers and envy their ability to tackle motherhood and keep a beautifully assembled home. I honestly don’t know how they do it. I’d love to be a fly on the wall so I would learn all of their tricks of the trade.
Confession time. I’m a messy mama.
My house is never entirely clean at one given time. It usually goes something like: part of the house is clean, while the other rooms look like a tornado just ripped through (my two boys are unbelievably talented at simulating a real life cyclone, flipping any space from clean to crap. Sometimes the crap part is literal…but we don’t go there this time.) Have you ever heard the saying, “Cleaning a house with children is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos”? Story.of.my.life.
Please don’t get me wrong. I love my kids. I love my husband. I love my home. I am grateful for all the ways in which the Lord has blessed us. But I just can’t seem to keep the “clean house” thing together…and sometimes, I’m downright hard on myself for not having it all together, all.the.time.
The struggle is real. I have to remind myself OFTEN that my worth is not tied to the state of my kitchen, the cleanliness of my toilet or those green beans that have been stuck to the wall next to the the high chair…since last night’s dinner.
Last year I had a friend over spur the moment and I said to her, “Please excuse my messy house.” She looked at me and said, “Are we friends or enemies?” I looked at her confused, wondering what she could possibly mean by that statement and I replied, “We are friends.” She then said something so simple, yet so profound: “Well it doesn’t matter what your house looks like if we’re friends, does it?” BINGO. That has rang in my head ever since that encounter.
I’ll leave you with some real life confessions from some amazingly awesome “Messy Mamas” in my life:
- “I use an app (Chore Checklist) to keep track of chores…not because I do them regularly, but to shame myself when it tells me I haven’t cleaned the bathtub in two months.”
- “I try and be very intentional with my time. I’d rather play a board game with my kids, snuggle my baby in the rocking chair or spend quality time investing in my husband than anything else.”
- “I’m convinced that women that can keep it all together, all the time, have a super power. You ladies really do exist right? Or is it all a Facebook & Pinterest facade?!”
- “My kids’ closets are a laundry basket of wadded up clean laundry and it’s actually in a chair. In the living room.”
- “My best cleaning is accomplished right before company comes over. And I tell you what, don’t open that one closet because that’s my ‘people-are-coming-over, I-need-to-tidy-and-so-I’m-going-to-scoop-and-shove-it-here’ place.”
- “Cleaning is so not my thing. BUT, I can make a mean batch of sugar cookies. You need a party planned? I’m your girl.”
- “I clean for my husband, or, as I think to call him, Danny Tanner. I don’t pick up anything all day. The rule is that he has to call and give me a 20 minute warning before he walks in the door. I run around like a chicken with it’s head cut off picking up toys, straightening couch cushions, putting away dishes from breakfast… You know the drill. If he forgets to call, he’s not allowed to complain about the mess.”
- “I like to refer to my house as my ‘beautiful disaster.’ When I look at my mess, I see children having fun and family making memories.”
How do you best embrace your beautiful disaster? What are your real life confessions?
