All I ask is that the house be clean.....

As I look around my persistently cluttered and messy house, I sigh and wish for something more, something nicer, cleaner, less cluttered.  This constant clutter is so draining and eventually saps my motivation to even try to keep up with it.  With three small children I realize that the constant small toys and art projects in various stages are my reality for now. I am so tired of the need to remind them to clean up after themselves. Seriously how many times in one weekend can we do a massive clean up of  the same room? I am constantly stepping on or around blocks, toy cars, tiny doll accessories etc.  I have tried taking pictures of the toys and labeling the bins they belong in, bought cabinets for the playroom to store the board games but in the end the toys remain scattered across the floor seemingly invisible to my children once they stop playing with them.


I have come to the unavoidable conclusion that perhaps they have too many things to play with.  I am beginning to dread the Christmas holidays knowing that even more toys will come.   I have started to sort through their toys to find the ones rarely played with or that are broken or missing pieces.  The broken or incomplete ones will be tossed out.  The ones in good condition need to go.  I think we will  have a garage sale if I ever can find a free weekend with good weather to hold one.  Still other toys I think will be moved into storage in the basement  to be rotated upstairs periodically.  Perhaps if they have less toys to play with they will be better able to keep them clean.

I dream of a day when I will be able to walk through a room without needing to step over toys, and to be able to simply turn the vacuum on and clean the carpet without needing to ask the kids to pick their stuff up for the 100th time that day.  Is it really so much to ask????