Organization = Sanity

Upon the arrival of my first little girl I had this illusion, among others, that my living room didn't have to look like a children's playroom.  However, since our home is very open concept that's exactly what was on the verge of happening.  I couldn't believe how many toys accumulated over the first few weeks and then months of her life.  They seem to miraculously multiply right before my eyes.  My husband and I looked at every furniture store in the city and finally came across a beautiful extra large coffee table, in which I found my salvation.  There is tons of space underneath, which is where the majority of the toys reside in baskets.

I love it when things are tidy and organized; I attribute it to my Virgo personality traits and my mom’s sound advice “a place for everything and everything in its place.”  Even writing that phrase down makes me sigh with contentment.  But, the reality is I now have a toddler and although there is a place for everything, rarely is everything in its place.

It took Sophie less than a minute to create this masterpiece.

Over the past few months I have learned to embrace the untidiness that is now my home.  Well, maybe embrace is a strong word; endure for a short period of time is probably more accurate.   Lucky for me Sophie has an afternoon nap and is in bed for the night at 7:30 pm so I have plenty of time to re-balance my sanity by putting things back in order.  Sadly, I admit that I find it therapeutic to imagine the sequence in which I will efficiently restore order to my home the moment the wild and destructive animal is effectively contained Sophie is snugly tucked into bed.  

During the day I will often enlist Sophie to help out with the clean up by putting the Legos and blocks in their appropriate baskets, but I reserve the bookshelf and toy organization for myself. 

I got this brilliant Lego table idea from the Meet the Dubien's blog, it has definitely saved my sanity.

Occasionally my sweet husband will surprise me by tidying up while I put the kids to bed.  Of course I express my sincere gratitude; however in the meantime I inwardly cringe and make a note to re-organize the toys and books the moment he steps into the garage.  He’ll never notice. Yes, I realize how insane this makes me sound, but the anal retentiveness is what makes me who I am.  Wait until I tell you about my Playdoh issues.