Refresh: My home, Restore: My sanity

When I was a kid my room was always a mess - a BIG mess.  I greatly lacked in organization or motivation to clean.  In fact, I kind of enjoyed it when I was sent to my room to clean.  Generally I played with everything I found, then fell asleep halfway under the bed - why under the bed, I have no idea - but that's how it went.

As a young adult I learned to keep things a bit neater and more organized.  I recognized while I was in college that when my house or room was messy, it was a reflection of what was going on in my mind and heart.  Now, I'm not saying that solution to feeling crazy and out of control is to clean my house - that's silly - but it absolutely does have an effect on how I think and feel.

When I moved into my own apartment, then my own house - I liked to keep things neat.  Now, truthfully - sometimes things got a bit out of place, even a little messy... but for the most part it was easy to clean and I liked the feeling of keeping things neat.  It felt good to my mind and my body - it was a good life.

Now, I'm happily married with 2.5 fantastic children.  Somehow over the last 4 years and 4.5 children (we had a couple of foster children for a while) - I lost the organization.  I lost the ability to keep things clean.  It feels messy in my house, and I don't like it.  When my house feels messy I get angry, frustrated, tired... messy!  I want things to be clean.  I feel like I'm in a constant battle to keep things loosely organized.  I told Mr. Crum last night - I just can't figure out how it is that we have more dirty dishes after every meal!  (he laughed).  

So here I am, working on ways to "renew, refresh, restore" and I find the condition of my house to be a hindrance.  How will I work on it?  Slowly.  We're still fighting the stuff battle - I take things to Salvation Army as frequently as possible.  This morning I felt energized - I got up, started laundry, cleaned the living room, did the dishes, prepared dinner... now it's time for a quick "blog break"... next I'm back to cleaning.  After "the Roamer" arrives to be babysat, we'll be heading upstairs to get the boys' room back in order and prepare our "classroom" area for the start of home preschool in a couple of weeks.

Do you have any great tips to share about keeping your home organized?