Hold Me Accountable or…Come for a Visit!

Yesterday I used the word “transparent” in my post, so today I’ve decided to be extremely “transparent.” I said I like to keep it real around here, so I’m getting about as real as you can get today. Embarrassingly real.

The truth is I’ve developed an extreme dislike for housecleaning lately. I’m usually a very tidy, if not immaculate, housekeeper. But something like housekeeping fever has overcome me in recent months weeks that seems to incapacitate me in the area of cleaning my house. I’ve totally let things go!

Now I can’t take full blame for this lack of general untidiness in my home. I do have three other adults or near adults who have certainly contributed to the mess. But, as the stay-at-home/work-from-home mom that I am, I suppose I am the one where the buck stops. It’s time to get this house in order.

If you’ve been wondering why you haven’t seen a Build My House post on recent Thursdays, you may have just found your answer… ahem.

So I’m baring it all today! I’m giving full disclosure of the state of my home to the entire bloggy world (or the three of you who occasionally read my blog anyhow). In hopes that my transparency and full confession will propel me to get it in gear and clean this mess up, I’m giving you a window, albeit a dirty window, into my chaos so that hopefully I’ll blush enough to do something about my shame.

Here goes:

We’ll start in my office where I have piled things up in a corner and my daughter has dumped a bag of clothes she no longer wants. I have just left the bag sitting on my floor for about three weeks now. Ridiculous.

In the entry way of my home you are greeted by a chair loaded with tote bags – Abby’s from camp (she came home two weeks ago) and mine from nothing really. It just ended up there one day and I haven’t moved it… Shameful!

The dining room table is not as messy as it sometimes has been, but nonetheless the Nintendo DS certainly doesn’t belong there. It’s been there for a week.

This is ridiculous. I’ve just left a Coke carton sitting on top of my kitchen trash can for the last two days. (The little things you see on the floor are not trash – they are doggy toys. The mess on the kitchen table is a bona fide mess, however.)

Here sit my sewing machine and fabric that I’m supposed to be sewing into a table skirt. Been here in the corner of my kitchen for weeks.

The ironing board seems to be out all the time lately. I do put it away when I’m through with it, but other family members keep getting it out and leaving it there. My vest on the chair, however, is purely my fault. It’s been there since Tuesday I believe.

Things get really embarrassing at this point. This is where my husband left his Father’s Day present back in, when would that have been, June?!?! Ugly, ugly, ugly… (I’m not blaming him solely for this. I take full responsibility for walking past this bag every day multiple times and not doing anything about it!)

And I’m pretty sure my daughter’s yearbook has been sitting on our church pew since she brought it home from school in … (oh my goodness!) May!!

Enough, enough, already! I could show you more, but have mercy!

Now here’s where you come in.

Surely you knew I wasn’t going to shoulder this mess on my own didn’t you?

I need you to keep me accountable and make me clean this stuff up. I’m going to get to work on it today and hopefully I’ll have new pictures to show you on Wednesday – for Not So Wordy Wednesday – that reveal a cleaner, more organized home.

Of course the thing that would help me most would be if someone would come to visit me! Having company always seems to do the trick for me like nothing else. So if you’d really like to help me get my house in order, come for a visit. I promise to have things spic’n span by the time you get here.

Accountability is a good things folks. Sometimes we shy away from making ourselves accountable to others because it’s just an invitation for added pressure. But most of us accomplish more, stay on the right path better, and steer clear of danger with more consistency when we’ve invited someone else into our world and given them both a transparent view and permission to speak up. I’ve done that with my housekeeping dilemma today, but I’ve arranged for accountability in the past when I’ve tackled new eating plans, tried to exercise more consistently, attempted to improve my daily quiet times, battled a nasty habit, tried some new parenting techniques, or needed to apologize to my husband. Believe me, having someone else – someone loving and godly – breathing down your neck and watching for results is a good thing, as unpleasant as it may sound.

Do you need a little accountability in some area today? Hey, if I can post pictures of my disorderly house on the Internet, you can seek out a friendly soul to encourage you and keep you accountable too. If that’s what it takes to get back on the right path, it’s worth it.

Have a great weekend my friends. I’m going to be cleaning house!