Messy houses

(MCT) — This morning I woke up, looked around, and went back to bed.

My life has officially spung out of control. Every single room in the house is a mess.

It started 16 years ago when the first child was born. I was much more organized back then. Each night, I picked up the toys, kept on top of the laundry and took leisurely strolls around the neighborhood with the baby. The hubby took care of the lawn and painted the trim on the house. Life was bliss.

Baby number two came into the picture two years later. We had sold our little ranch and purchased a ranch with a basement. Life settled into a routine with a toddler and a baby. The toys were still picked up at night and I even organized them into the bins and toy box. Life was blissful as the hubby laid down sod in our new backyard and I planted flowers in pots.

Twenty three months later, my youngest child was born at home. I had a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old and a new baby. The hubby cleaned up the toys at night and the oldest kiddo helped by putting them away in the toy box. There were some days and nights that we simply collapsed exhausted on the couch with the toys strewn about us. Life was blissfully chaotic.

A few months later, my 14-year-old niece came to live with us so she could go to a new high school. Life became a blur of screaming children and a teenager who needed to be dropped off here and there. I still managed to cook on most nights and clean up here and there. I was teaching part-time at a community college and started running a non-profit organization. Life started to unravel at home. The teenager had a room that looked like a tornado ran through it. The rest of the house started to look the same.

So what did we do?

We moved.

"A bigger house will help," I told my husband. "We'll have a place for everything, and we'll put everything in its place."