Spring Cleaning Redux...

Remember how a few months ago, I had this whole spring cleaning frenzy and was all gung-ho for it? Well, this is how I feel like my apartment looks right now:

NOT a photo of my house! This is from Hoarders.

It's not quite that bad, but there's an obstacle course in the livingroom, the only portion of the bathroom floor that's visible is the arc where the door opens and closes, and I'm tired of having to shout repeatedly to get the kids to take the garbage out (I'd do it myself, but this is their chore, and they need to start taking responsibility). To explain the bathroom... my washer and dryer are in there, so the floor is covered in dirty clothes. The kitchen floor is relatively tidy, but every available surface in my house is covered with stuff, there are piles of stuff everywhere, and I can't even walk into the children's bedrooms without injuring myself (therefore, their clothes end up in a jumble half-in and half-out of their dressers, because I can't seem to get them to put the clothes away properly).

In reality, my apartment is probably a bit more like this:

Not mine, obviously.

But either way, it's gross and I don't want to live like this anymore. If I'm honest, I've NEVER wanted to live like this, but I guess I'm too lazy to do anything about it? Part of the problem is that I work two jobs, I go to school, my kids have swimming classes (and I go to the gym) and I have two kids and two cats. I'm never home, and there's a tag-team going along right behind me making a bigger mess in the small space I've just cleaned.

I spoke to my landlord yesterday, and it seems he's itching to do some major work on my apartment (YAY!), but in order for him to do that, it has to be clean and uncluttered. He's agreed to lend me one of the big rolling garbage bins and one of the big rolling recycling bins from outside (we have eight garbage and six recycling bins outside) to get things going, and he's being really awesome about all this. Most people probably would have just booted us and had a cleaning crew come in. Last night, I talked to Rob about all this, and ended up blowing up at him after describing what I was doing to get the kids to help, and hearing "that's what you're doing wrong" several times. (I don't tend to react well to that). *sigh* I know he's trying to help, and he's RIGHT (that's the kicker). I just wish he could find a way to say so without saying "you screwed up". If I'm honest, I'm damn lucky he's still around considering how bad my apartment was the first time he came over.

All this is very embarrassing for me to admit, and it's humiliating whenever anyone enters my home (especially Rob). So I put on this facade like it doesn't bother me, because really? What am I going to do? Break down sobbing and curl into the fetal position? That's not going to get my house cleaned. If I'm going to change the situation, I can't just sit around being overwhelmed anymore. I have to get my ass in gear and start getting shit done.

Morning score:

Dishes: 0
Lynne: 1

:D Let the games begin!