this is hard to admit

I'm not sure how it came up, but one night after thinking about the disarray of our house for a while, I asked my husband if he thought we were on the messier side of average or on the cleaner side of average for the standard American household.  His response was that he thought we were messier. We're not Hoarders Level or anything, but indeed messy.

I've known for a long time that our house was not clean.

When we had a small group meeting together regularly in our house for church, it became routine that we would tidy up everything for company each Sunday. It was a lot of work to clean up everything from the whole week to get ready for that but I think everyone has a certain level of cleanliness that they find acceptable for company and we had to get to ours regularly due to hosting that small group meeting.

Of course, I've tried all kinds of clean-as-you go or day-of-the-week "systems" plenty of times before but nothing would ever stick for me.

I've always preferred stacking stuff so that my mess looks like organized chaos.

It seems as the years have gone by and the family of two became a family of three and then four maintaining a clean home has become much more difficult.

Three years ago when I went back to work full time, Jonathan had to pick up a lot of slack around the house. Suddenly we were both working full-time again and he had to help more with the cleaning or it just wouldn't get done.

When I switched jobs this year and started going to school before the kids are even up it's added more to his plate again because he has to get them ready for school, fix their breakfasts and lunches and get them to school on time.

It's really become bad since I started marathon training.  Sometimes I just have to choose to sit down on the couch wash running clothes instead of cleaning bathrooms or changing sheets and then because I run out the door, the sheets don't get changed and the bathrooms don't get cleaned.  I knew there would be a huge time commitment involved in this plan and it's exactly the picture I'd imagined.  Perhaps I should keep running marathons just so I don't have to clean regularly, no?

And I must say that I totally feel for my husband.  However, I KNOW that as with so many things, this is just a season. This too shall pass and we will get back to a more "normal" household routine after the marathon is over, but until then....

I want to find a balance between order and living life.  I don't want my kids to have to put every single toy they play with away before they get out another one.  I don't do that.  [Which could totally be the reason our house is "messier than average" and hence the reason for this post.] I don't know how some of the full-time working parents I know keep their house looking as good as they do, but I do know that for now, we can't do much more.

What say you Internets? What comes before cleaning at your house? And is it OK that I let my kids eat in front of the television on an old Blue's Clue's blanket on the floor a few nights a week because I'm scooting out the door to practice? Also, do you want to see pictures of my nasty house? My husband just might quit speaking to me if I do that.

photo credit: operationorganizationbyheidi.com