Breaking up with clutter is hard to do...

Earlier today I was reading a new post on my friend Elizabeth's blog A New Version of Me (which by the way is an amazingly heartfelt blog worth reading) and she was talking about a clutter challenge she is doing. A clutter challenge! How perfect would that would be for me!! I have already admitted that clutter is a problem area of mine in my New Year's Challenge #1, so what better way to stay a bit accountable than to join in on this challenge?!

The original challenge is from a lady named SRB and she writes all about it on her blog VeggieSausages. 

The first step in the challenge is to Fess Up about our clutter....so here goes....


Despite the fact that I have been a rather cluttered/messy person for as long as I can remember it was not until after I had kids that my apparent inability to stay organized really started to get to me. In the past I managed to function just fine even if my surroundings were cluttered. I usually knew where most things were in my mess and it did not bother me if I had to move one thing out of the way to get to another or if I had to step over something that was in my way. 

Now, on the other hand, it is driving me bananas! It might not be the physical mess that bothers me as much as the image I feel it creates of how I am as a person and a mom.  At school and at work I am able to step up and stay organized, but at home is another story. I am convinced that if people would see how cluttered my surroundings tend to get most of them would be shocked! Obviously I know how to clean and organize but for some reason it always tends to fall back into the old cluttered tracks after a little while. Therefore, I have decided that it is about time to break up with clutter once and for all and I hope this challenge might help me do just that!

First of all I am supposed to identify which areas in my home I feel are cluttered....can I answer D. All of the above? There are definitely areas in every single room that need improvement! The shelves and the catch-all corner in the kitchen, the shelves in the laundry closet, the dining room table, all of the office/playroom, the master bathroom and the master closet are the main ones right now.

Secondly I am supposed to take pictures of these spaces (which I did) and really look at them (which I also did) and then write down all the things that I see in one of the spaces.

Here is my list for the catch-all corner in my kitchen:
- My purse
- Circulars and other misc. mail
- 2 small empty plastic baskets
- A paper bag with recycling
- A printed out mealplan
- My daughter's cardigan
- A kid's chef hat
- Coupons and receipts
- Cellphone charger
- A ziplock full of ribbons
- An empty vase
- Camera case
- 2 Notepads and 3 pens and 1 pencil
- A book and 2 magazines
- A planner
- Post-It notes
- A teething toy
- Bottle for a baby doll
- Hat for my son
- A dress-up necklace and bracelet
- Hairclips
- Eyeshadow and concealer
- A set of bath toys
- Duplos
- Kid's tooth brushes
- Pack of kleenex
- Bag clip
- Chapstick
- Rubberbands
- Empty candy wrapper

WOW!!!  I had no idea the vast selection of random items that ended up on this counter!! And worse yet, the amount of things which do-not-under-any-circumstances-belong-in-the-kitchen-at-all! Obviously, this is what happens when I simply dump out the contents of my bag and purse before heading out the door (sans kids) to run an errand.

No matter the reason it does not make me feel any better about it.

It makes me feel like I am not the one in charge of the clutter but the clutter is in charge of me and I do not like it at all! So a clutter challenge is definitely in order since this is not the image I wish to portray neither of me nor us or our house. Time to kick this bad habit to the curb once and for all!