Real Life Happens, Even If You’ve Decluttered

This week, I’ve been feeling a bit like an imposter.

We got home from vacation this past Saturday, and I feel like I’ve been playing catch-up ever since. It’s been go-go-go and frankly, keeping the house in order just wasn’t top of my priority list.

All those things I preach about and normally do?

Out the window!

For the first time ever, our oldest son has homework. Like, real homework. He missed his second week of school for vacation, so this week we had to navigate adding school work into our evenings for the first time.

He also started swim team practice.

Fall gymnastics started for our daughter.

I had to get my brain re-accustomed to pumping out 12 hours for my part-time job after only working 6/week all summer (see why I had to cut back HERE…potty training is fun). 

I had a lot going on with Paring Down…interviews, solo episode prep & recording, last minute episode upload for Tuesday, a newsletter to write, this blog to write, TWO branded reels with deadlines this week, plus regular content to create.

Everything is positive and fun, but housework just WASN’T happening.

It felt embarrassing to have over 210,000 people following me for decluttering inspiration (between Instagram and Facebook) when my house looked like a bomb went off. 

My kids have barely had clothes to wear this week, because we essentially packed our entire wardrobes in the suitcases (given that we really only own about one week’s worth of clothing to begin with), so I just took stuff out of there to wash things haphazardly. 

I ended up catching up on laundry by Wednesday, but lots of piles ended up sitting on the floor of our room instead of getting put away because it was just so much! I’m used to only putting away 2-3 days worth at a time. Over a week’s worth?? Gosh, no wonder laundry feels so overwhelming for so many people! I forgot how big the mountain of just one week’s worth of clothing can be.

I thought about not telling my dirty little secret to you all. That *sometimes* even a decluttering queen lets her home get out of hand. I want to be inspirational! I want you to know that life can be easier with less housework!

But on this mission to inspire you about the benefits of decluttering, it’s probably really important to expose my humanity. In a sense, my very real humanity is exactly WHY decluttering matters to begin with.

Because I had to put my own tips to use.

Finally, this morning, when I had about an hour and a half to spare, I set a 15 minute timer to tackle the primary bedroom, which is where vacation threw up everywhere.

In 15 minutes, I was able to get allllll the things completely off the floor and any clothes onto the bed, plus anything that didn’t belong in our room back in the room it belonged.

Since I was so pleased with how much I got done in just 15 minutes, I set a second 15 minute timer to see if I could get everything off the bed and put away in that time. And I did!

It was such a weight lifted off my chest…and a reminder that tidying up the house often goes way faster than we anticipated. Especially when everything has a home (no trying to figure out where to put things) and the amount we own is really limited.

That’s the worst our house has been in years, and it only took 30 minutes. Well, 45 if you count the 15 minutes I also spent finally picking up the playroom which hadn’t been picked up all week. Normally it only takes me 10 minutes, but the dog peed in there today so getting that cleaned up added some time…super fun.

Anyway, just remember when you see beautiful homes online– yes, decluttering does make it MUCH easier to maintain those clear surfaces and floors, but sometimes life gets out of wack, and no one is immune to having a week’s worth of clothing piled on the floor. At least not me.

There’s nothing wrong with you or me or anyone whose house has gotten out of hand. It’s just a matter of getting back on track ASAP! If you’re where I was this past week…don’t worry, you’ve got this!