I've Had My Moments

There have been times in my life where having a clean room was not so out of reach. What is has really come down to for me is the amount of stuff that's in that room. In college, when I only brought what I needed with me, I was able to designate a place for everyyyyyything. I had bins and shelfs, storage towers and pant hangers, even desk organizers! I had a system.


And (if you can imagine!) I got by with only those things! That is the key here. Get.rid.of.some.stuff. That's easier said than done. For a normal person, donating the clothes that fit two sizes ago should be a no brainer. But for me, I feel the need to keep that skirt I got at J. Crew in 2004; the one that is a size 6 (keep dreaming), salmon colored, corduroy, and has embroidered geese on it. Why? I don't know, maybe because I wore it on Thanksgiving that year and actually thought is was classic ("a skirt with embroidered geese on it, yes, that's totally something I will wear often and for years to come!"). And to be honest, I have put that goose skirt in a "give-away" bin more than once...just never got around to take the clothes out of my house!

So for me, the first mess that I really need to get a handle on is the stuff. The stuff I will never use/wear/look at again. While I work on cleaning (room by room is the plan), I will need to really cut back on my stuff. Lord help me, because this will be a challenge.

Well here I am...

...and I guess this will be an introduction of sorts. I am 24 (almost 25...eeeeek), I work full time and attend school full time. My boyfriend, Nick, and I have been dating for over 5 years and live together in a rented 2 bedroom apartment on Cape Cod.

I love my mom, but she had 3 babies in 5 years, and it was hard enough keeping up with us, let alone keeping up the cleaning. I never thought that our house was unclean, it just always felt lived in. There may have been toys on the floor and dishes in the sink, but we were generally happy. And, since I am my mother's daughter, I do not have the super-clean gene.

Probably around age 14, it started getting bad. That's when clothes became problem #1. I was six feet all, and a size 2, and when companies began making "tall" clothes more available, I began collecting them. I would buy the same pair of jeans multiple times and hang onto them until I had worn through them. My room always looked like my dresser and closet threw up; clothes everywhere. Case in point, the picture at the beginning of this post, taken when I was about 16. It's been a constant struggle for me to keep things clean since then.

Now that I am an adult, with an even busier life, I am finding it harder and harder to make the time to clean and keep clean. My friends don't quite understand why I can't just do it, Nick can't believe I don't have the thought process to just put the dishes in the dishwasher, but hey, admitting you have a problem is half the battle, right? I am hoping that this blog will keep me accountable, and as I journey to cleanliness, it will keep you all entertained!