My Messy House
Yesterday after getting the boys on the bus and heading off to work I stepped out the door and peered back into my home. As I shut the door here is what I saw…..
In the living room there was a pile of trucks, a suitcase and a mixing bowl with a couple of goldfish in it under the fort my 3 year old and I had built the day before.
In the dining room our table was covered in folded laundry that had been pushed way down the table so we could eat dinner together. There was also two baskets of unfolded laundry that had been pawed through with little boys (and my big boy) searching for the match to their sock or their hoodie they wanted to wear because it wasn’t winter coat weather anymore.
In the kitchen there was a trail of overflowing cheerios to the floor because my son is learning to be independent and poured his own bowl of cheerios (wooo hooo!).
The kitchen sink was full of yesterdays dishes that I didn’t get too because I decided to snuggle up with my boys and watch “Turning Red” on Disney plus instead.
There it was, I was gazing at a home that was happy, (very messy) but happy.
Fulfilling its purpose as a space
Where we make messes
Try new things
Take breaks
To make each other our priority, not the things inside.
Now let me remind you, I haven’t always seen a messy house this way. A messy house used to mean to me that I was failing as a mother. That I wasn’t doing it right. That I hadn’t “figured it out” yet. That there were only the most selective, best moms that were able to keep a clean and happy home and I wasn’t one of them.
But I’m okay with a messy house now. It’s just a messy house. It has nothing to do with me as a woman, wife or mother (even working mother).
And I especially don’t care what other people think of my messy house.
I would also like to add that I like to clean my house too. I turn on my music and swirl around my home putting things back, throwing things out, wiping things down.
But I only do it when I want to, and NOT when its tied to my identity as a woman.
I define myself as the most half and half mom there is.
Half the times my house is a down right disaster, half the times its neat and tidy. (Okay maybe 60/40)
The state of our home is not an indication of our success level as a woman or mother. Clean because you want to, not because you told yourself you have to, or because you want to feel something that is only available to you after you have a clean house. Your house is happy when its messy, you can be too.
