I want to be a minimalist.
I never thought much about how many things I have until my kids came along. Or I guess maybe there’s a deeper underlying issue: I never had so many things until my kids came along.
But now, I look around my house–their bedrooms, the kitchen, the living room, even my office–and I practically break out in hives seeing all the THINGS.
Toys, toys, toys. Random diaper here, random pull-up there. Infant-formula powder strewn across the kitchen counter. Piles of too-small clothes in the laundry room. Applesauce pouches on my nightstand, kid spoons on the couch. Tupperware (aka baby toys) all over the kitchen floor. A highchair in the kitchen (or, to be more accurate, a perpetually dirty highchair in the kitchen). Two types of strollers and a muddy wagon in the driveway. A sleep sack under the covers in my bed, even though my baby daughter never sleeps in my bed.
What’s the dog-shaped thermometer doing in the kitchen’s utensil drawer? What’s the regular-shaped thermometer doing in my purse? Why are my son’s pajamas in the garage?
It’s enough to drive a mom crazy. It does drive this mom crazy. And the thing is, I’m not even a neat freak! I mean, I wash my clothes and the dishes and stuff, but I’m not one of those people who’s constantly tidying up. I don’t make the bed the second I’m out of it, killing everyone’s buzz by cleaning up while the party’s still in full force. I hardly ever mop my floors, my clear glass shower door could be clearer, sometimes I leave a dirty mug on my desk for two days. I don’t identify with Monica from “Friends.”
But … someone get all this STUFF out of my house
Help me, Marie Kondo.
Home Edit gals, please come to my house and get rid of half our toys and put the other half in cute little storage compartments.
Then come over again tomorrow after my one-year-old daughter pulls all the toys out of the storage containers not because she’s going to play with them, but because she feels like throwing them on the floor. Then again the day after that when my two-year-old son examines every toy in the playroom and tosses them aside in favor of chasing the dog around and begging my husband to let him climb the ladder into the attic. I guess what I’m saying is that cute little storage solutions won’t work. They don’t work. I’ve tried. Toys and baby-related paraphernalia are still everywhere.
Oh, wait, I actually need all this stuff?
So, yeah, I want to be a minimalist. I want to get rid of all the extra baby and kid stuff so I can stop looking at it, so it stops getting in my way everywhere I go.
The only problem? We actually need most of it. Babies need diapers. Or, I guess they don’t strictly need them to survive, but our house would be a whole lot *messier* without them. Babies and toddlers certainly need food, and often that comes in the form of applesauce pouches. Kids need clothes, too, and lots of them because they sure do seem to outgrow pants every other week. Highchairs and strollers and wagons make life a whole lot easier and more convenient and often more fun. Thermometers and sticky infant Tylenol and baby toiletries help us keep them healthy.
The solution, of course, is to keep everything tidy and neat and clean. There’s a place for everything, and everything in it’s place and all that. But who has time for that? Between taking care of our kids and working and hanging out with our spouse and trying to have some fun, where’s the time to constantly be cleaning the kitchen and picking up toys? We have to prioritize, and tidying up kids’ stuff just isn’t a priority for me. And honestly, I don’t really want it to be. I’ll keep things clean, but I don’t think I have the bandwidth to keep things tidy.
So where does that leave me? Where does that leave parents? I could accept the fact that my house is going to be messy for many, many years, and do some meditating to make peace with it. I could get rid of the things we DON’T need, like excess toys. I’ll try both of those things. The kids’ stuff will probably still drive me crazy.
As is so often the case, I don’t have the answers. I just have the questions.
P.S. Don’t even get me STARTED on kid shoes. How are there so many? How do they grow out of them so fast? Do we REALLY need rain boots? Why does my daughter love chewing on her brother’s shoes? Why do I buy sandals if they won’t wear them? Why is it that every time I organize the shoes the kids decide it would be really fun to PLAY with their shoes?