A friend of mine posted on Facebook a little over a week ago about how we usually show our best on social media. We show our "Facebook perfect" lives with pictures of our awesome food, vacation, or favorite selfie. We rarely have a perfectly human and flawed day. As a result, as some of the replies noted, we can have an unrealistic expectation of what our lives should be. We have a tendency to compare our worst to everyone's best.
I've really been thinking about that post. People in general want to show their best. I don't think it is wrong to strive for perfection or at least to strive for better. The problems come when we beat ourselves up for not reaching unrealistic heights, or for not giving ourselves sufficient time/experience to reach those heights.
In the interest of keeping it real here is my house.
This was the one clean corner in my home. I was so proud of myself for getting this much done. I'm very good at organizing. Very good at putting it all together.
Here it is now. As you can see, I'm not as good at maintaining as I am at getting it organized. I've got things stored underneath. I don't really count that as clutter. I do wish I had a better place to put it or had some clever way to disguise/display it. The stuff on top drives me a little crazy. I was very clear with the inhabitants of the house that NOTHING was to be on top of the craft table. Honestly, I think I'm the one that did it.
This is my living room. It almost always looks like this. It's not entirely my fault, although I feel the blame/shame of not having a picture perfect living room. If I could convince the little people of the house to keep their little things out of my living room without loosing my mind, that would be lovely. I like sanity more than I like a perfect living room.
We use to have a second sofa. It was the laundry sofa. What you don't see in this pic is the baskets of unfolded laundry behind this sofa. The theory is that everyone over the age of 12 is completely responsible for their own laundry. For the younger set of Monzingos I will wash and dry, but they must fold and put away. Still working on that fold and put away part.
Some days I actually get my bed made. Most days I do not. Well I may be at about 50%. My kids never get their beds made. I just can't see myself making them do that when I can't get mine made everyday.
This is my messy house and I'm somewhat OK with it. I wish that it was better, but not enough to do anything about it. Even before I had kids I was not exactly a fantastic housekeeper. Honestly, the current level of clutter is a bit more than I want. I feel like I should be able to do better. But I can only work on one thing at a time. One corner at a time. One room at a time. I'll get there. Eventually. Maybe.
