Where to begin?

My brain is as cluttered and disorganized as my house, so this introductory blog post will likely be just as random and unfocused.

The reason I started this blog is because I've been reading the blog A Slob Comes Clean for a little over a week, and I can so relate to her ongoing struggle to declutter, clean, and maintain. Maybe blogging about it will help me become more focused and motivated as well.

By the way, if anyone happens to read this, and is dealing with excessive clutter and cleaning issues (not just organization and mild clutter), I highly recommend that blog.

So, a little bit about me... My husband and I both grew up in cluttered, messy houses. As kids, we both got roped into the mad dash on Fridays to clean up as much trash and as many dishes as possible before one of our parents came home for the weekend (my dad, his mom). And with much resentment, too.

However, when I was 13, we moved into a much smaller house. I mean, really small. We just grabbed the most important stuff, maybe 10% of what we had, and left the rest behind. The new place got dirty and cluttered pretty quick, but the three of us (my mom, sister, and I) could have the house company ready in half an hour by each tackling different tasks.

This is no longer the case. My mother-in-law lives with us. So does all of her stuff. The garage is filled with boxes of things no one has used or missed in 15 to 30 years. The office is also crammed full of boxes. And more boxes are littering the living room.

More stuff comes into this house than goes out. And my mother-in-law isn't the only culprit. We all do it. But I am hoping to at least get a handle on the situation, so that we can have people come to the house without another mad dash to hide the crazy.

I've had all of the visible areas of the house cleaned before. On several occasions. I have never learned how to maintain it. Cleaning is something I grew up hating. But I am trying.

So, that's my story. I intend to post my progress as I attempt to rewire my brain into better habits, so that I can look back and see what I have done. I've been working on this since April, and have seen improvement in some areas. I'll be posting about that in the future.