My Dirty Little Secret

We all make goals, resolutions, whatever you want to call them. What keeps us from meeting them? Accountability.

So today I share with you my dirty little secret, literally. All those tidy spaces most people see in my house are just an illusion. Hidden away inside closets and rooms that are usually not seen are my junk piles. Things that I shoved out of the way to make the room look better. Things that I'm not sure what to do with, so I put them out of sight so I don't have to worry about it. Projects that I've started that aren't finished. Sally and Philip are pretty familiar with them, as I shove them in corners, under blankets and tables, or just move them from room to room when they visit.

I'm going to post some shots of my house, namely my office and the guest room, to show myself just how badly I need to organize! Granted, a lot of the bins and boxes you see are actually empty. They are things I've already reorganized and now the extra stuff is sitting around and I don't know what to do with them. (What if I need them for another organizational project? I'd hate it if I got rid of them.) Or they are clothes the kids have outgrown and I haven't decided what to do with them...sell, give away?

This year, I WILL FIX THESE SPACES. I'm pretty sure. 85% sure. Remind me of that.

This is the view from my desk in my office. Bags of clothes to be donated, plus a few boxes of mail order items that need to be returned.

The view into the nook in my office. Let's see, lots of empty bins and bags, a chandelier that never got hung, a box of fabric for projects that never got done, two packages to mail for new babies (who I think are about 1 now), and a roman shade for the window that never got hung. See a theme? Oh, and that's my college degree hanging on the wall to the left taunting me.

One of the worst offenders, my office closet. You can see I attempted at some point to organize, but then stuff got dumped in, like extra lampshades, bins and notebooks of items from our renovation project, some extra baskets and bins full of "kid crap" I've picked up around the house and need to go through, and then who knows what, since it's buried too deep to see.

My desk and credenza in my office. Isn't it pretty? Maybe if it wasn't piled with junk. There are several boxes of my mom's china that I am not using that need to go in the attic. Various "to do" piles...coupons to use, thank you notes to write, bills to pay, kid stuff to put on the calendar, invoices and bills to file, and so on.

Last, but not least, my photo project in the guest room. I have happily taken on the job of sorting through the Adams and Ford photos and slides to try to make sense of them. I need to throw out the ones that really don't matter, sort into some sort of categories, and file or put in albums if possible, or digitize them. I'm not even going to think about the photos on the computer that haven't ever been printed. It is a REALLY BIG JOB and not one that will be done any time soon.

But I'm enjoying going through them and have made some headway. I guess, in this case, I need an organizational system for my organization project. Does it never end? :)

I'm sure you are all so excited about this new venture of mine, telling you about my messes. But I need someone to report to, so I've nominated you. I'm the queen at starting these types of things, but not finishing. One thing about being part of a family is that you tend to have small increments of time to work on this type of thing, and can't leave it out everywhere in between. (I did have about 50 categories of photo piles at one point all over the room, but then we couldn't walk in there.)

Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!