On Clutter and Clarity | Home Life

The other day while I was at Target I ran into a friend who asked me how I keep my home so clean and clutter-free. I laughed because that’s the sound that comes out of my mouth when someone associates anything that I own or gave birth to with the words so + clean.

It’s not the first or second or even third time I’ve been asked this and each time, I can clearly hear that person’s guilt or shame about their own living space. So I thought I’d share a couple of tips on reducing and maintaining clutter and also reveal some ugly areas in my home to prove that there is never any point of any day where my entire house is clean. My windows are perpetually smudgy. My floors are always peppered with dust balls and gum wrappers. I almost never make my bed. I’m okay with this and you should be, too.

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So it’s been 10 minutes of staring at this blinking cursor and I’m realizing I really don’t have a whole blog post worth of tips. I’m sorry. But I think one key to a somewhat clutter-free home with kids is storage. Baskets, armoire, shelves – basically anything that can hold several things and keep those things out of plain view. It’s also just a lot of damned cleaning. I spend all my time at home either in the living room, kitchen or dining room. So those are the areas I maintain throughout the day. And it is definitely THROUGHOUT the day. Like the entire day. But it’s worth it to me because *I* am the one who can’t function in the clutter. And I’m the one who has to function here.

The kids work at school. My husband works at his office which he keeps impeccably clean. But my work is here at the place where 4 other humans and a pup come to relax and not worry about toys and video game chargers and socks and flossers everywhere. So things can definitely get out of hand if I let them. So I try my hardest not to. I’m finding that the older I get, the more I crave clarity. And for me, a space that’s free of the junk that can so easily make us feel stuck and frustrated and constantly reminded of the dirty work we have to do is paramount. Ok, photos…

Please excuse the sweet sick baby boy.

Yesterday a FB friend asked all her FB friends about wall clutter. When I started this whatever you call this thing, it was to be the beginning of a gallery of framed art that took up the entire wall. But then the baby started growing and so did the stuff that came along with him and I started feeling that walls-caving-in feeling and decided to chill. Now that I’m staring at it, the spacing between the photos make no sense. Oh well.

I really like to work in this room at this table. For details on how I built the table, go here. I found the painting (that I’ve had for several years now) at an Angel Ministries thrift store in Third Ward. The rug was a Craigslist steal.

P’s room stays relatively clean because he’s never in it because he hates being alone. And I completely forgot to take photos of the boys’ room. Probably because I try to imagine that it’s not part of the house. Like they live in their own tiny disgusting apartment and they just visit me a lot and ask me to feed them. For real, y’all. It’s bad. 

Baskets are always a good idea. This junky area would look even junkier without it.

More baskets (Ikea)

Look at those two baskets (garage sale).

Charger and grooming kit basket (estate sale)

Toilet paper basket (Value Village)

Dining room toy basket (Target)

Ball, bag and miscellaneous basket (some thrift store)

This is another solution to wall clutter. It takes up a huge chunk of the wall, but it doesn’t feel like it’s suffocating me because the placement is uniform. Plus the black and white keeps my eyes and brain from doing too much.

Christmas decor can be pretty overwhelming, too. But I try to keep them in line with the general look of my existing decor. Speaking of look, look at that dusty floor.

Christmas Village from Value Village. Sometimes the lights actually work.

Medicine ball and resistance band basket (my mom’s garage)

This table was brown and stained and came with a bright blue and red stool that the kids broke, so I spray painted it black and paired it with a knock-off Eames to make it fit in a bit better.

I built the blanket ladder, the wreath is from Value Village (surprise), blankets from Ikea and Mexico. Garland from Target dollar spot.

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Ok now here’s the ugly. This is our master bedroom that we sometimes refer to as Trash Room. That’s because it’s often where I dump the things I don’t want to look at and because as you can see, there’s literally trash on the floor. One weekend two years ago while my husband was out of town I tried to give this room a facelift with a mediocre paint job and some quirky thrift store art. But at this point I feel like she’s really leaned in to the Trash Room role and I’m not one to encourage folks to be something they’re not, so I just let her be. 

A hidden scale. A meditation pillow under a straw hat. Teeny baby weights. A fur-topped kennel. This is just. Gaaah. And we’re not going to discuss the state of these floors. Add them to the list of things we said we’d fix right after we move in.

 

I left my electric griddle in the sink because my electric griddle is always in the sink. I hate washing it so much. Hate it. There’s also always a folded towel on the counter because I haven’t purchased an ironing board since the tabletop one I bought in college. I iron on a towel on the kitchen counter because I’m a grown woman and I’ve earned the right to do so.

 

I doubt that any of the mail in that mail holder is needed, but I never find myself just sitting around saying lemme sort through this 2-year-old mail pile. But I should definitely try hard to find myself saying lemme clean those gross cabinets.