It has been forever and a day since we’ve done any real deep cleaning in our home. I was doing so good, too. I finished that hallway, got it in tip-top shape, and then…well, families live here. 😂
You know what happened next. It’s a hot mess again. But I tool time this morning to take the trash down and go through the snacks so I know what we need to get when we go grocery shopping.
Then I moved on to the bathroom. I started cleaning, organizing, and working my way through those cabinets. I got one cabinet all cleaned up and organized, and lo and behold… They turned it upside down again.
And I’m still trying to work my way through the rest of the cabinets. But this morning I got up and decided, to hell with it. I’m going back in. I’m reorganizing those cabinets whether they get messed up again or not, because Im tired of opening a cabinet door and not being able to find what I’m looking for.
And here’s what really got me: I’ll open the cabinet and see eight, ten, or more bottles of shampoo and conditioner staring right back at me, and then somebody will tell me: “Mom, we need to go to the store. We don’t have any shampoo.”
Excuse me?! What?! Something has to change. And it needs to change now. It’s time for everybody in this house to step up—or step out of the way—because I am DONE with a messy house.
So we’re starting again and were going room by room. Charlie isn’t working and he is going to help me every morning. All I’m asking for is 2 hours a day. That isn’t going to kill him. Then on David’s day off we can go through the items we’ve accumulated and decide what were going to do with everything.
This isn’t about making everything Pinterest-perfect. It’s about being able to open a cabinet, SEE what we have, find what we need, and stop buying things we already have six, eight, or apparently eighty of.
And while I was working on this bathroom, I realized something else: There is a whole story sitting inside these cabinets. So we’re starting a new part of Grace by Grace: Room by Room: WHAT’S REALLY IN OUR BATHROOM CABINET?
We’re going to pull it all out, figure out what we’ve got, and actually review the products we’ve used. And yes…there’s a pink tote involved. I bought that tote specifically for these room-by-room resets.
Charlie borrowed it for the items in the back of his car about six weeks ago and said, “I’ll give it back Monday.” I’m still waiting on Monday. So apparently, before we can even finish organizing the bathroom, we have to solve The Mystery of the Missing Pink Tote or Charlie needs to go buy me a new tote and no, I don’t care what color it is just buy the cheapest one you can find.
And then I can start pulling out all these shampoos and conditioners. In the background, I can already hear David: “Lucy, you’ve got some plaining to do!” And you know what? He’s right. Because apparently, I have some plaining to do which has to wait until I finish the cabinet.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates