Some Level of Sanity

If your home, like mine, transformed with the arrival of October, bats, spiders, skeletons, and other spooky décor took their places on your walls, shelves and doorways. And, if your home like mine, is in a constant state of disarray, said decorations have become yet another layer on the strata that is a “lived-in” home.

Yes, a home where children live—young children—is never quite clean. Our sons’ toys, for example are now in a pile on one side of the living room. We’ve tried countless storage “solutions” and yet a pile is the best we can come up with. As for the furniture, our ottoman and dining chairs are covered in neon orange duct tape. They boys are in a tape phase. And the couch? New seams rip on the daily.

So do we clean? ALL THE TIME. We even bought a robot vacuum sweeper. We call it Otto. Otto does a great job, but Otto can’t put 300 Hot Wheels away. Nor can he take last night’s pajamas and underpants to the laundry bin. He can suck up Legos, though, so that’s good.

So do we not clean? ALL THE TIME. Sometimes we let the large pile turn into smaller piles all over the place for several days in a row. I think my wife and I sometimes see how long we can go before the other person breaks and just starts cleaning in angry protest.

So should we continue wasting time and bending our backs to keep the living room worth living in? I say yes. If we’re to keep some level of sanity, and if we are to impart one example on our sons let it be to keep the place tidy. At least a little bit. Please. Please?

I know our home won’t be like this forever. The boys will learn. And though I crave the minimalism of a monk’s chambers, these are kids for Pete’s sake. They need their precious toys. They need a place to play and to make memories, and a backdrop for we, their parents, to capture those moments in our heads before they pass by in a flash.

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Photo by Rick Mason on Unsplash

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