My House is Clean!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well actually no. It is not clean at present. But it is still organized. Meaning that everything (nearly everything) has a home. I've actually been meaning to post this post forever. Since around the 14th of June when my house was organized and clean. So I will now proceed to paste and copy the original message that I started, and then finish it now:

In order for you to clap with the vigor and enthusiasm required at the news that my house is clean, you must see what my house looked like before. However, I think it best not to impede upon your good opinion of me. Still, to give you some idea of what it looked like, think of the houses you gaze in horror upon when you watch the show Clean Sweep or Mission Organization. Every room was its one little mountain of junk. You think I am joking? Good. Let's keep it that way. But please continue to clap with vigor.

How did it get like this??? I wondered that often as I cleaned. I realized that it goes back to childhood. If only I had listened to my most excellent mother, and cleaned my room, none of this would have happened. I am reminded of a time in my youth, actually it may have lasted until early college, when I would fill half of my queen sized bed with junk. Really. Like I would sleep on one half of the bed and books, pencils, papers, random pieces of jewelry, hair clips....really I could go on, but I'll stop. Anyway, all of these items would sleep on the other side. This means I that I have a creative personality, right?? (Please smile and nod. Thank you.) I could live quite happily like this for some time, until something in the back of my brain would snap and I would go on a cleaning tirade in my room. My joy at it's cleanliness was full, and yet, the cleanliness would only last for a bout a week. This was the beginning of the vicious cycle that used to occur at my own house, after I married Nathan (notice that I used the word "used", as in past tense. We'll get back to that.). It is different in one's house. When it was just my room, it was okay because I was only in my room at night time. When I continued this habit in my entire home, it became a nightmare.

Now adays we have truly repented. This was mostly spurred on by the fact that some men had to come and do repairs to almost our entire condo. There was no way in Kansas that they were going to be able to do that while we were a candidate for Clean Sweep. So the cleaning was absolutely mandatory. You know that whole, "compelled to be humble thing"? Well I had to be compelled to clean my house. Yes, sad it came to that I know. But I think this event will have lasting implications. We clean up after ourselves now (mostly, you'll notice up at the top that I said that my house wasn't currently clean). We set an alarm on our phone to ring at 9:oopm every night. This summons the great event of "clean up time". We even try to get Ellie involved by using a sticker chart, which worked great for potty training, but not cleaning so much. The point is that even though we are dependent upon a little noise, we get some productive cleaning done everyday. Nate is so sweet to help me in my deficiencies. We might even buy into "Clean up Saturday." We'll do some cleaning, but then have some fun.

So, yes, do raise up a cheer! We have conquered the monstrous mess!