Organized Mom Stops Cleaning for 3 Days, Immediately Knows It Won't Go as Planned
Since the first houses were built, people have had very particular ideas about how they should be run. Most of the world’s people can be divided into two categories: people who like things to be neat and tidy, and those who couldn’t care less.
This phenomenon is so well-known and universal that people at both ends of the spectrum often make it onto popular TV shows.
Keeping a house presentable is easy enough when you’re the only person in it. But add a pet, a person, or a child, and the difficulty level shoots up.
If you are a mom, you know all about this. Kids leave messes. Pets leave messes. Significant others leave messes.
It’s an eternal version of “The Little Red Hen,” where you are expected to do all the work yourself. All the time.
Some moms have chosen to embrace the chaos and laugh at the messy reality of a not-quite-model home.
There are plenty of framed quotes online and on walls that claim that disorganized homes are full of life and love, and time is being spent on more important things.
But for some moms, keeping the house clean is the only slim tether keeping them tied to sanity. If they lose control of the state of their homes, they lose control.
One mom saw an interesting experiment: Another mom decided to take a few days off and let the house evolve in its own fashion without her stepping in. Madness swirled about her, but she just let it happen.
“Wow — this woman is my hero,” Kate Desmond thought. So she wanted to give this carefree method a trial — thankfully for us, she blogged the whole thing.
“I could really use a break from cleaning, straightening and constant nagging (and let’s face it, so could my family),” wrote Desmond. “Maybe, just maybe, I could give this a whirl and start summer as a whole new carefree, throw-caution-to-the-wind kind of mama.”
But the headline of the resulting article said it all: “I Stopped Picking Up My Family’s Messes For 3 Days — And It Didn’t Go Well.”
Of course, “messy” to some is “clean” to others, so Desmond wanted to clarify her definition for her readers.
“’Oh, how bad could it be, Kate? Your house is always so picked up.’ My friends are all collectively asking and rolling their eyes at my definition of a total disaster,” she wrote.
“But listen ladies, I’m really good at hiding my crazy. On a day-to-day basis (before I have a chance to restore order each evening) my house is a jungle of laundry and puzzles and teeny tiny toys and barbie shoes and dog hair and crumbs and tools and ponytail holders and costumes and puppets and, and, and … You get the point.”
But as time went on, Desmond found it difficult to quell her anxiety. Stuff was everywhere. She couldn’t even sit down to spend her well-earned time watching TV because it was buried under a mountain of belongings.
“Meticulously sorted piles of clothes, towels and sheets typically lie there until my husband and minions are kindly reminded, within an inch of their lives, to put them away. Or, alternatively, I put it all away myself. No nagging and no doing meant no laundry-put-away-ing.”
Menacing LEGO minefields grew. Snack wrappers piled up. Toys carpeted the carpet. Odds and ends were all out of place. Somehow Desmond made it through three days.
“I left it there for three days,” Desmond said of the laundry mountain on the couch. “Three whole days. And no one noticed. And no one cared but me. I cared, and then I caved because I can’t Netflix binge lying atop a mountain of laundry. I can’t. It’s not in my DNA.”
Whether you’re a neat freak or comfortable with chaos, her descriptions are relatable!
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