Ever since Christmas, I’ve been on a mission to have a clean house. I read the Lifechanging Magic of Tidying Up. I joined some organization groups on Facebook and revived my Pinterest boards dedicated to improving my home. I read lots of blog posts. I looked at dozens of house cleaning schedules and charts. And then I threw myself into it.

It’s been going pretty well. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

• Cleaned and organized the coat closet
• Bought a shoe rack to solve the pile of shoes by the back door problem
• Cleaned out most of the kitchen cabinets and got rid of TONS of things I didn’t use or love
• Cleaned out the banquette storage
• Cleaned and organized the file cabinet
• Moved the cereal/snacks/crackers/misc food stuff to a cabinet so my countertop is mostly clean
• Cleaned and organized the fridge
• Bought new pillows for all the beds
• Created a laundry system* with multiple baskets
• Started emptying the sink every night before bed
• Started unloading the dishwasher every morning after the kids go to school
• Prioritized an evening clean up every night before bed
• Started making my bed, complete with throw pillows

Now, weeks later, I wouldn’t be ashamed to have surprise company show up at my door. (I mean, I will probably be in pajamas and no bra, but my house will be in pretty good shape.) I’m not saying things are spotless or that you could eat off my floors – I have a dog, a cat, and four kids – but if you wanted to come in for coffee I wouldn’t be mad. I still don’t live in a Pottery Barn catalog or a blank white box, so those toys on the coffee table are actually supposed to be there, as is the downstairs laundry basket, the art supplies on the dining room table and the bins of small plastic things. The look I am going for is “well-loved and lived-in family home not occupied by hoarders”.

Are you dying to know the secret to my success? Do you want the link to my eBook on how to solve your messy house once and for all? Am I so smug you can’t wait to poke holes in my system? Let me tell you how I have accomplished this 180 turn around from trash heap to nice home. Here it is, my secret to a clean house:

You just have to f**king do it.

There aren’t any tricks. There isn’t a magic organizational chart or schedule or Pinterest board that made my house clean. I have to do all those stupid, repetitive chores every single day to stay on top of the mess. Even my laundry system boils down to “Oh you put away three loads of laundry yesterday? DO IT AGAIN.” I sit down less. I see something that needs put away and I get up and put it away. I don’t let things “soak” in the sink for five days. I pick up the same toys five times a day and then one more time after the kids go to bed…then I do the same thing the next day. It is never-ending. It is stupid. It is necessary.

It sucks.

The peaceful sleep of a child who isn’t living in chaos, made possible by the fact that I made my bed. And then I had to make it again because he slept in it.

But it is starting to get easier. It’s become a habit to clean the sink and clear off surfaces as soon as I can. Same thing with the laundry – I finally remember to throw in a load/switch to the dryer/empty the dryer several times a day. I’m learning to value how 20 minutes of work can help me stay on top of the housework instead of constantly playing catch up. I mean, I am ALWAYS playing catch up. Always. I have four children. I am very tired. But by constantly climbing towards the top of housework mountain I don’t end up buried under it.

It would be foolish of me to say this is a permanent change. I doubt I will ever be someone who finds it easy to stay organized. But by changing my attitude from “I need a strategy” to “Just f**king do it” I’ve made definite progress. You too can have a sort of clean home if you sleep fewer hours, relax less often, and follow your children around cleaning up their messes as they make them.

*I ordered medium sized laundry baskets for every member of the family at the advice of a friend. That way when I’m throwing clean clothes out of the dryer I can throw them into the baskets and putting away each person’s laundry takes a lot less time than sorting from one giant pile. These baskets are the perfect size: http://amzn.to/2mO0gmx.

Between sick kids and cold weather I feel like I’ve been trapped in the house forever. If you’re in a similar situation, here’s today’s tip: Buy Moana and watch it at least 10 times. It’s amazing.

Sunday:

I don’t even object to this anymore

Fancy hair!

When you recognize your friends’ cars at Target…

Monday:

Snuggle naps

Not quite ready to go

Peek a boo

Tuesday:

Someone needs driving lessons

New baby kitchen location

Superhero-ing is exhausting

Wednesday:

Someone thinks it’s spring

Sibling snuggles

A+ Parenting right here. You should take lessons from me.

Thursday:

Big brother helping at Finn’s checkup

Well that’s one way to sleep

Nice kitty, soft kitty

Friday:

They’re pretending to nap. Badly.

Napping for real. Much more convincing.

Saturday:

Who let this kid drive?!

Almost 10 years in this house and we’re finally setting up the TV area nicely

In far less exciting but expensive home repair, we just had the stairwell fixed. Finally. E pulled down the plaster a couple years ago, thinking he could just patch it. But it ended up being a really big area and we needed to have the whole thing drywalled and taped and skim coated and primed. So we paid a guy. He just left. But that was the last major thing we needed to do to have a grown-up house that doesn’t look like it’s about to collapse, so yay? Not the most fun way to spend a big chunk of money but we feel very responsible.

Right now, the kids are about to walk out the door to school (note, I wrote this yesterday). If I was a nice mom, I would have reminded them to bring me their lunch boxes so I could make home lunch. But they’re busy playing, so they forgot. I’m using my 10 quiet minutes to blog, because I’m not foolish enough to wreck it with packed-lunch demands. School lunch it is!

Sunday:

Are these two the cutest or what?

Who new professional lacrosse games were really fun?

Finn couldn’t hang though, he slept right through the very exciting overtime

Monday:

I finally started making my bed, like I’m a grown up or something

All our linens, sorted and vacuum bagged for storage

More couch naps

Tuesday:

My favorite baby time

Or maybe this is my favorite baby time

I made it to the final rounds of the Shoot & Share contest! That bottom right one is mine.

Wednesday:

Lincoln does not love the craft store like I do

Being 2 (and everything being 2 entails) is exhausting

Super excited to read El Deafo, her new graphic novel

Thursday:

I got exactly zero of these numbers on either of my lottery tickets

Eating his feet

I am also tempted to chew on his feet

Friday:

Linc has started getting really sad when the big kids go to school

CHUBBY

Late night ladies trips to Home Depot

Saturday:

Making progress towards the guest/play room

New fox sox

I love this photo

Is anyone in the market for a 2-year-old? I’m about ready to sell mine. His favorite hobbies are giving me heart attacks and dumping out bins of toys. But he’s really cute when he sleeps and can be super funny. Maybe I can just send him off to circus camp or something for a few weeks until he gets it out of his system. Otherwise I might have to invest in deadbolts, padded walls, and $10,000 worth of granola bars.

{Lincoln 6 months, Caroline 6 months, Evan 6 months}

Happy Half-Birthday to Baby Finnegan! This has been both the longest and shortest six months of my life. Somehow knowing this is the last newborn I’ll have has made every day more…everything. More exciting, more exhausting, more fun, more frustrating. MORE.

There’s also so much more Finnegan these days. He’s blossomed into such a nice, sweet baby with an easy-going personality. The kids started calling him Buddy, as in Buddy the Elf, because smiling is his favorite. He loves going places so he can look at new people and smile at them. He likes when I wear him so he can look into faces, but it means he doesn’t really nap when we’re in public. He does love to flirt with everyone though, so besides the occasional crying jag in the checkout line he’s a good shopping partner.

Speaking of naps, he finally has a schedule! Well, sort of a schedule. He takes a morning nap about 2 hours after he wakes up, so if he wakes up at 7 am like he did today he needs a 9 am nap. If he sleeps until 9 am, he needs an 11 am nap. After morning nap he’s ready to play or run errands or nurse and nurse and nurse and nurse for 4ish hours until he needs an afternoon nap. Then he goes to bed at about 9:30 pm. The nighttime schedule is…less predictable. He’s finally started going 4 hours in a row without eating, but sometimes it’s the first four hours of the night and sometimes it’s from 5 am to 9 am, but since I have to get up at 7:30 I’m not getting four hours of sleep on any sort of regular basis. We DID finally move him upstairs to the master bedroom, so at least I’m off the couch. The goal for March is to get him into the pack-n-play as opposed to sleeping in the swing most of the time.

Finnegan’s current biggest problem is that he thinks he can walk. He cannot walk. He can’t even reliably sit up without putting a pillow behind him. But when you are holding him, he spends all his time lunging for things, trying to throw himself out of your lap, and sliding off the couch onto his feet. He is SO DETERMINED to be mobile. And that’s fine! Please, learn to walk! But for the love of God, if you insist on being attached to me then just LET ME HOLD YOU.

At his 6 month check up today, he weighed in at 20 pounds, 5 oz, which is 90th percentile for weight. His head is in the 85th percentile and his height is right on the 50th, so yes, he is a super chunk.

Likes include smiling, friends, his siblings, socks, clean diapers, music, tickles, baths, rolling, the exersaucer, chewing on things, apple slices, the cat, the dog, grabbing things he isn’t supposed to have, standing, jumping, white noise, his green blanket, and me.

Dislikes include waking up alone, gas, when I leave the room, having boogers removed from his face, being tired and when I don’t nurse him the instant he wants to be fed.

This might be the last month I can get him to sit in this chair for photos, at least without bribing him with more that just Wyatt the fox.

6 Month Milestones

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Turns toward sounds and voices – Yes, especially if he’s supposed to be nursing
Imitates sounds – Ehhhhhhh he imitates laughing?
Rolls over in both directions – Rolly polly roller rolls everywhere

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do
Is ready for solid foods – I sure hope so, I’m about ready to start handing him pizza crusts (j/k, I gave him apples and sweet potato yesterday, he liked them)
Sits without support – We’re at that point where I keep forgetting he can’t quite sit, so he ends up falling over a lot
Mouths objects – HAHAHAHAHAHA Yes.
Passes objects from hand to hand – Yes, if there is one thing he is really good at, it’s fine motor skills

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Lunges forward or starts crawling – He’s pulling his knees under himself and creeping. Crawling is in our near future.
Jabbers or combines syllables – Not really
Drags objects toward himself – Yes, this is how I get things done. I put him on the floor surrounded by stuff and let him drag to his heart’s content.

I’ll have a real 6 monthday update for Finnegan after his check-up today, but for now I felt it was important the world not miss out on these photos.