The Messy Bits

Recently there has been a discussion among the crafty-blogger-types about some people not being "real" on their blogs and not ever talking about anything hard, or messy, or "real". I think you can blog about whatever you want (within the limits of the law and morality) and if you want to bog about all your messy bits, go ahead. I'm not showing mine unless it is part of a process I am trying to document, because I don't like the messy bits myself. I am more at peace when things are neat, tidy and in their place at home. I'm here pretty much all day long (how many places am I going to try to go with 5 small children, now, really!) and nothing is ever completely neat, but we approach it somewhat regularly. Even if it is just one room at a time. I'll tell you I have a problem, but I'm not going to show it to you! Maybe I'm still haunted by those pictures my mom took of my room years ago and threatened to show my boyfriend. HAHAHA! Paul, are you scared? He's seen bigger messes by now! Back then I wasn't allowed to use the KITCHEN!

For several years now I have operated under a modified Flylady approach, in order to keep things sanitary and somewhat decluttered. Then we moved and bought a house. I know we tossed a bunch before we came, as we unpacked, but there is still no room for it. The problem must be that there is too much stuff. I hate doing garage sales. Every once in a while I freecycle a bunch of stuff. In the last 3 months I have sent about 10 good sized boxes to Goodwill. It's hardly a dent, though. I still keep the bathrooms and kitchen clean. But homeschooling makes a l0t of clutter - I can probably do something about that. Right now we loosely follow the curriculum plan set forth in The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. And we have multiple copies of things because we have multiple people involved in the same lessons. And lots of plain paper around. And boxes of colored pencils, regular pencils, crayons, and markers. I should have spent some time this summer streamlining. Oh well.

And sewing has it's own problems. My room which is supposed to contain it all leaks. It leaks into my bedroom, the kitchen, the dining room and the study. I've severly limited the fabric that leaks to the laundry room, since I'm not increasing my stash anymore I don't need to do all the prewashing of new fabric. I think I really need to downsize the stash, though. I know what my upcoming projects are, even for the next few years. I have been bad about acquiring fabric just because I like it. Even if I had plans for it at one point I have forgotten them. What I did the other night is write out a big list of things I needed to get sewn for the fall and winter. I did stop my Ottobre subscrition for a while - it's not in the budget right now until we are out of debt. I have about 4 years worth of their pattern magazines, which is enough to get me out of any children's clothing crisis. But I could seriously destash. I've been on the "use what you have month" for the last 6 now, and I've hardly made a dent!

Anyway, back to the messy bits. I don't want to see anyone's mess. I see my own all the time. I love the magic of being able to photoshop things out. I know that beneath the cute little table is a basket full of odds and ends, just like mine. And the picture you took of your child's room was taken in the middle of the night or when they were away at Grandma's. That's ok. I promise to look the other way when we come over, and help pick up a bit when we leave. As long as you do the same with me. Right now my little ones are picking up their own bits so they can ride bikes outside later. I need to go finish some of my own picking up, too. But I might show you a picture when it's all clean!