“This place is a disaster!” I yelled the other day. “I swear it was spotless yesterday morning!”
It’s frustrating to work so hard to clean the house, look back on it with pride and then wake up the next day and wonder why the hell you even wasted your time.
It’s a never ending circle of chores and messes.
But not long after, my kids took a trip with Grandma. Two whole nights away from me in fact.
And ya’ know what? My house was spotless. It didn’t get dirty once except for the two or three dishes my husband and I made.
I realized, like I should realize every day of my life, how much I actually adore my messy house.
Without this messy house my life would be boring and lonely.
Because the tiny gravel rocks I’m sweeping up off the floor for the third time this week… they’re there because she loves to dig in the dirt at her brother’s baseball games and it fills up in her shoes. Getting dirty like that makes her happy.
The pile of dirty dishes in my sink… it’s because we ate dinner around the table last night. They told me about their day and he laughed at her when she burped after a big drink.
The 17 stuffed animals on my living room floor… they have been placed there meticulously by a four-year-old who loves to perform and needs a willing audience.
The muddy paw prints tracking from the back door into my living room… they’re from the dog our kids love so much; the puppy they get to spend their childhood with.
The six pairs of shoes that are piled up at the front door… they are there because she changed her shoes four times yesterday. She continually played outside having the time of her life with some friends and every time she came in and took her shoes off, she grabbed a new pair.
That bedroom that makes me cringe every time I walk in… it’s only messy because they play in it. They build, the create, they argue and work through it. Isn’t that exactly what it’s for?
That kinetic sand that is shoved in the crevices of our coffee table… it’s there because they build sand castles for her ponies to live in.
The enormous pile of papers on my kitchen counter… it’s because he has brought home so much art work from Kindergarten that I am in love with and can’t let go. Maybe one day he’ll be an artist.
The dust on our shelves… well it’s there because I have better things to do than dust. I have books to read, games to play and parks to visit.
Here’s the thing…
I’m still going to get frustrated now and again and strive to keep my house in relative order, but I’m going to loosen the reigns. I’m going to keep reminding myself that one day my house will be spotless again, and it will be because they are grown and gone.
I’ll keep loving this messy house until then.
Liz is a just a mom trying to keep it real about how little she sleeps, how often she gets puked on and how much she loves them. You can find her here every day writing about real-mom moments.
Thank you for sharing this! I really needed to hear that there others mothers that go through the same things I go through! This story helped me so much to understand my messy house.
Thank you for sharing this! I really needed to hear that there others mothers that go through the same things I go through! This story helped me so much to understand my messy house. And Cherish these days more!