CLUTTER!!!!!

What a nice word for crap! I have so much crap in my house it is unbelievable. Truth be told I have never been incredibly tidy. I grew up in a VERY messy home and I internalized that kind of chaos. My home is a total reflection of me: MESSY. Wow, now there's a confession for ya'. But I am tired of hiding behind the fact that our house is under perpetual construction. Literally. Our living room/dining room/ and downstairs bathroom (that's a laundry room if you work for the South Orange tax department!) have no walls except the external ones, very little electricity and single light bulbs. The beams in the ceiling are exposed, and not in a kitchy, oh-aren't-we-hip kind of way. More in a we-took-out-all-the-plaster-and-lathe-and-haven't-replaced-it-yet kind of way.

So what has sparked this naked confession. Well, my mother calls me the other night and asks if I am watching Oprah. I wasn't. She told me to tape it when it came on later and to watch it. The show - Oprah's Messy House Tour. What was she saying?! I know exactly what she was saying: Keisha your house is a disaster! She's right. I have done almost everything I can to fix this situation - Julie Morgenstern, Clear Your Clutter w/Karen Kingston, Feng Shui, FLYLADY!!!! Nothing worked. And the reason it didn't was because I didn't stick with it. I would clean in a mad rush (I am VERY good at event cleaning) and then think: "Wow, I did alot of work. I am entitled to rest for several months!" Forgetting that the grime piles up and the dishes get eaten off of again, and those damn clothes keep getting worn!

I am DONE with this life. And part of being done is exposure. Not hiding my light or my mess under a bushel but putting it out there, for the whole 5 people who read this blog, to see! In an effort to come clean (ha ha ha) I am going to join Oprah's Messy House Tour and I am going to post my efforts here on this blog. My friend's blog Creative and Blessed has a feature called "Peak from my Pad." So in homage to her stylish inspiration I am going to entitle my posts about my house: "Clutter in the Crib" complete with before and after pictures! Peter Walsh, over at Oprah's, guarantees that our homes will be shiny in six months. I can do six months. I've gone longer for less. And maybe once I get all the crap out of here hubby can actually start fixing up the place. When that happens I will have you all over for tea. Let the journey begin.

In peace