Clean Freak?

*WARNING: Long post.  Probably boring. But this is what has been on my mind lately...

I've spent the last couple of days working with the girls to clean their room.  And by clean I mean clean, dejunk, organize, and rearrange.  Over the past few months I've done this in the rest of the house, but their's was the last.  It looks so nice now.  I'm hoping it stays that way.  (Or at least made to resemble its current appearance on a weekly basis!)  But it got me thinking, when did I become a clean freak?

I don't think I've ever been a super messy person.  I remember having sort of a messy room as a teenager, but I don't think it was bad.  (Mom, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!)  Even when it was messy though, I still knew where most of my stuff was.  In college I shared a room, so I don't think I was too messy out of respect for my friend's space.  Ash may have different memories though.  Ash? 

Then I got married.  We were both working.  We were busy.  We were tired.  We made piles.  I can remember that we used to wait to wash the dishes (no dishwasher) until we were out of something.  Usually more than one something.  Usually cereal bowls and spoons.  I don't think either of us wanted to do the dishes and so they just filled up the sink until the situation got desperate.  Thankfully, at that point, we'd usually tackle the pile-up together.  I've gotten progressively better at doing dishes over the years.  I remember that I decided to only buy as many bottles for Kyle as I'd need in one day so that I would be forced to do the dishes every day.  It worked!  And I discovered that I love, love, LOVE having a clean kitchen to wake up to.  Every once in a while I'll go to bed without doing the dishes or finishing up cleaning the kitchen, but I almost always regret it in the morning.  I'd rather stay up the extra 10 or 15 minutes then wake up to the mess.

I think part of my obsession with keeping things organized and tidy also comes from the fact that we've always (with 2 exceptions) lived in places that were a little bit small for our family. 

Our first apartment was a one bedroom.  Not a big deal since it was just us.  But at one point Brad was working on an engine of some sort (motorcycle?) and he had to use our living room.  The engine rested on a tarp and he would stash it under the computer desk when he wasn't tinkering.  After a year, we had Sarah and we rapidly lost space.  Who knew a little 6 lb. baby could take up so much space?  Well, it was actually her stuff that ran us out.  We moved into the married student village at the University of Utah.  Anyone who's lived in student housing knows that space is at a premium.  We had a two bedroom though and I felt like we were moving up in the world. 

Until we had Chloe.  Her bassinet took turns being in our room, Sarah's room and the kitchen.  After a couple of months though, we moved to Washington.  This time it was a 3 bedroom apartment, and it was double, maybe even triple the amount of space we had in the village.  This was exception #1 to our small home living.  We had two bathrooms!  Sarah wasn't even potty trained yet.  I think this is when we started accumulating stuff.  We lived there for a year and then moved into a little 3 bedroom home.  Moving always seems like a good time to organized and purge and so I did.  Our new home was small, maybe even smaller than our apartment, but it had a garage and it had a storage room off the garage.  This is when we really started accumulating.  However, a year later we put all of our belongings into a 10x10 storage unit and moved to California for a TDY (temporary duty) and so it was time to organize and purge again. 

After living in CA for a year, we came back to WA and moved into a two bedroom apartment.  We'd been living in a two bedroom for our time in CA and figured we could do it again in order to save a little money.  Space was tight, but we made it work.  The girls had been sharing a room ever since Chloe was born and so they were used to sharing.  The problem came 10 months later when Kyle was born.  He ended up with a little corner of space in our small bedroom.  This is when we decided we needed some space.  Exception #2:  We found a home to rent that had 4 bedrooms (4!) and the master bedroom was huge.  Seriously huge.  I still don't know what I would do with all of that space.  We had a living room AND a family room.  A kitchen with a dining area AND a dining room.  We bought more couches.  :)

But after we lived there for about 7 months and then it we made plans to head back to CA for another TDY.  This is when we faced a major dilemma.  What do we do with our stuff?  At this point, we had too much to fit into a storage unit.  Even with my paring down skills, I knew we couldn't fit everything into one unit.  Brad didn't want to leave our stuff in the house and continue to rent it - basically a HUGE, expensive storage unit.  Option #3 was to finally buy our own home.  While it would still be a big, expensive storage unit, at least it wouldn't be one that we were renting.  Plus once we came home, we would be home.  We wouldn't have to move again. 

We bought our current home.  A 3 bedroom, almost 1500 sq. ft. house.  Not too bad for a family of 5.  Not super roomy, but definitely enough.  We moved in, unpacked, repacked and moved down to San Diego for 6 months.  (Our neighbors weren't sure what happened to us.)  We've been in this home now for 5 years.  We've had 2 more kids.  Now we use the downstairs family room as the girls' shared room.  They each get a half.  They are pretty lucky, if you ask me.  The boys share the smallest of the 3 bedrooms.  Mainly because it was Kyle's room from the beginning and so we just stuck with that.  The room that was originally the girls' room, then the office, is now Emma's room.  It is also my sewing room (if you open the closet).  Our bedroom is small, but it works.  We have to take turns walking between the end of the bed and the closet.  Either that or do a funny shimmy to get past each other.  We have a small family room.  It works fine unless we have people over.  Then the space gets really crowded really quickly.  The kitchen is small.  I didn't realize how small when we were looking to buy the house.  We've added a pantry and I'm constantly reevaluating where things should live.  I wonder what it will be like if we ever move.  I know we'll buy something bigger.  It will probably feel like a palace!

But back to organizing... Since space in our home is at a premium, I'm almost always thinking about how I can make things more organized, more tidy, more spacious.  Spacious is a funny word for our home, but I'm trying to maximize the space we have.  The boys have a bunk bed with a drawer underneath that holds a lot of their toys and a storage unit from IKEA with 4 large baskets for most of the rest.  The girls each have a plastic bin under their bed for their toys.  They used to have 3 bins underneath when their beds were bunked, but as they've gotten older we've gotten rid of a lot of their toys.  Chloe also has one large bin for all of her stuffed animals (and a few of Sarah's).  I've got most of my sewing stuff organized and living in Emma's closet.  The rest is in an old dresser in the laundry room.  We have another old dresser in our family room that holds random computer equipment, remote controls, the Wii games and equipment, some of our scriptures and church magazines.  Our Wii rock band stuff is stashed in two different corners.  Our kitchen cupboards are organized and nearly everything has a specific home.  However, it's a bit like playing Tetris when it is time to get out or put away pots and pans.  I still have two spaces where Brad and I make piles.  The kitchen counter by the phone and the top of our dresser.  I try to clean them off once a week, but I'd like to get better at it.  It would be nice if we could avoid the piles altogether!

And cleaning...?  I'm getting better at it the older I get.  It also helps that as the kids get older, they can help too.  The bathrooms now get cleaned every week.  Maybe not to my standard, but some cleaning weekly is better adds up to a cleaner space overall than major cleaning once a month.  I'm still not good at super deep cleaning.  I usually spot wash my kitchen floor, but I know how to get down on my hands and knees and do a thorough job if necessary.  Baseboards?  Do people really clean their baseboards on a yearly (or more frequent) basis?  Dusting happens when I notice the dust.  Well, okay, a few days or so after I notice the dust.  But still, the kitchen is cleaned up nightly.  I make my bed almost every day now.  (This is a new habit.)  The boys' toys get picked up every day before bed.  And once again, the girls' room is clean.  We're making progress!

**After Shelley's comment, I feel that I should add that I don't like doing the dishes.  At all.  But I do like a clean kitchen.  I guess the same goes for all cleaning.  I like the results.  I'd much rather spend my time napping or working in my yard!  :)