Liar Liar,

I would say pants on fire but they're all perfectly folded and put away in their drawers by size, type, color and length.  In that order.  Not really.

OK I lied, I don't have anything super controversial or too mentally disturbed to share today.  It's been a crazy busy week and it's only Tuesday.  I have a new branch spawning off my business and it is exploding quickly so I had to spend some time designing some sites etc to cover basic advertising yaddah yaddah boring business owner crap.

What I HAVE had time to notice in the last few days is that when Mama has lots of work to do, my house goes messy very fast.  This means that my morning today was spent fixing the things that have gone wonky in the house.  Wonky house=gritchy Mama!  Gritchy (for those of you not from Indiana) means, well...replace the 1st 2 letters with a B.  Close enough.  So I fell back into my organize/clean/scrub mode today and now that my hands are pruned, house is shining, and head is pounding from the smell of cleaning chemicals...it's nap time/blog time and PHEW!  Good thing!

Who goes through a 5 gallon jug of bleach in a month?  This girl right here!

Mmmmmmmm Bleach.

I've been on a huge cleaning binge lately since the impending move of doom that I speak of so lovingly, now has a face.  We have a tentative closing date!  *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!*  And I am the queen of boxing right now.  Not boxing like a punch in the face...though given the right opportunity...
Back to bleach.  I'm not even kidding, if I were killing people and destroying DNA evidence I don't think I would be going through as much bleach as I am.  Which leads me back to the *squeeeeeeeeeee* and all things I'm looking forward to about our move.  No more stupid bath tub with a stupid low sloped ceiling and bathing my boy in the kitchen sink out of well...safety for me mostly so I don't bang my head, knock myself out, and end up face down in his 2 inches of bath water. I can just imagine at least one reader fantasizing about that happening to me.

So as I box.  And I bleach.  And I box.  And I plot and plan new paint schemes and the like, I am trying to cut down on the clutter, the unnecessary crap, and remain OFF the list of potential future episodes of Hoarders.  Mommy blogs, yeah...they're great for ideas on cleaning, decluttering, organizing, and well...also avoiding and failing at those things.  And since I'm trying to champion at least one other mommy blogger each week now, guess I'll start with one of my absolute faves!

I got a good giggle at stark.raving.mad.mommy's (GO CHECK HER OUT!) post the other day about Real Simple's article on cleaning out your pantry in 15 minutes.  That is, until this morning.  When I cleaned mine out in less than 15 minutes, with my 11 month old in my arms.  Yikes.  Does that make me OCD?  Not only did I clean it out, box up some unnecessary cooking pans/etc that I NEVER use (though now that they're boxed, I totally expect to need in the next month) and reorganize my pantry, I also set up a bi-weekly shelf in place of where the cooking stuff was.  What is that, you ask?  Well...let me tell you!  (Do I sound excited?  Cuz I am!)

I plan my groceries and meals 2 weeks out. This means I can do all my shopping in one day for 2 weeks worth of food with the exception of the perishables (milk, bread, fresh fruits/veggies).  So what did I do in my brilliant OCD moment today, set up a shelf, and labeled it (yeah...it's that bad) with the days of the week x2.  Then put the nonperishable items on that shelf on the day corresponding to when they will be cooked.  How sweet is that?!?  Now not only will I not have to dig for that jar of olives for tomorrow night's Chicken Caccatore, but my husband will know what not to randomly snack on.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand this is where I hang my head in shame at the sudden realization that my numerous attempts to avoid all things domestic have finally gone awry and I have lost the battle.  I'm excited about a new organizational technique...in my freakin pantry...good gravy!

I tried.  I really did.  I wasn't going to organize, or make lists, or have "cleaning days"...but I found REAL quickly that if I wanted to keep myself sane to any level, with this many people in one house...all of the above are necessary.  My husband makes fun of my lists.  And my list pads.  I have like a million of these things, and I spaz when they go missing because my lists are my sanity.

I have actually resorted to buying them with pink kittens on them so they don't end up in my husband's lunch box to be used at work as scratch paper.  Truck drivers can't have pink kitten paper unless they want to get their asses kicked.  The bad news is, pink kitten note pads are like diamonds or gold to little girls under the age of 10.
The good news, I guess...is that in the process of all this insanity I have created my own form of organized chaos.  It might look  like a train wreck at times but ask me where anything is and I can find it in 2 seconds flat.  Welllllllllllllllllllll, unless it's my keys or cell phone.  I lose those at least 5 times a day.
Want to know where that protective order is?  Right here.  Want to know where my receipts for anything; medical, food, clothes, diapers, you name it, are?  Right there.  Want to know how I remember every f'in thing you pray to God that I have forgotten about and will never come back up again...because I have an amazing filing system and nowwwwwwwwwwwwwww so does my pantry!  WOOHOO!

In all honesty, since starting to do grocery shopping 2 weeks at a time, I have cut down on our weekly groceries by over $100/week.  I have cut down on my time making dinner because I no longer have to sit and think, 'uhmmmmmmmmmmmmmm shit, what am I making for dinner?!'.  I stay flexible with my meal plan but having it all done up front is so nice!  So there ya have it.  My boring, non-controversial, only minorly disturbed post.  OCD is not funny.  Hoarding is not funny.  *Stiffles the urge to laugh*
Welcome to my life.