My Secret Obsession...

The other day I walked into the girls room and all of Eliza's clothes were on the floor, out of her dresser drawer in neat piles. Exasperated I asked WHAT she was doing. Her response, "Mommy, my drawer was so messy, I couldn't find anything, so I'm organizing it!" Ahhhhhh....like mother like daughter.

So it's not so secret, but if you walked into my house you wouldn't notice my obsession, because my house is definately lived in. You would step on a few sippy cups, crunch a few cheerios or trip over our big plastic horse, need I say more? When the seed was sown, I was able to keep my obsession a secret, here's how:

In the elementary dorms at my boarding school we had a certain routine on Saturday mornings we had to follow before we were free to go outside and play. We had to fold all of our clothes, clean out and organize our cubbies, line up our shoes, dust our dressers, change our sheets, sweep our bedroom and do a chore for dorm upkeep. We had to have all of this finished, with our roomate and had to get "checked out" by a dorm parent. So, I loved this... I had to do it, but I would stay up late, hoping I wouldn't get caught out of my bed, and I would fold my clothes or organize my cubbie. I could disguise my obsession by the mere fact that all of us were in a race to get checked out first. To the despair of the middle schoolers in our dorm, we would wake up at the butt crack of dawn and start cleaning. They hated us for this and sometimes made us lock ourselves in the bathroom stalls if we were being too noisy. (wow, that sounds disturbing as I write this...).

So, my secret is out. If I had the time and energy (or a closet the size of Oprah Winfrey's dressing room closet...) and knew that it wouldn't be rearranged five minutes later, I would do this to every drawer and closet in our house. Sometimes the mess and clutter drives me crazy, but most of the time I'm too busy and too blessed by those who make the mess to care.

**my dream job: to work with TLC's "Clean Sweep" crew!