Less is More in the Bedroom
Could I state anything more obvious, but keeping clutter under control is really difficult. I could blame it on the kids and the husband, but I had a clutter problem back when I was single. After a few days, weeks of neglect, my little apartment got pretty bad. Now you add four more people into my usual clutter mix, and it's so much worse. What used to take a good week to accumulate happens within hours. Sometimes minutes.
Unfortunately I'm not one of those people who feels calm and relaxed surrounded by piles of stuff. I get anxious and stressed when the clutter hits a certain threshold, and if I lack the time or energy to clean, I feel depressed. Not crippling depression, but a bad case of the grouchies. Grouchy mom, wife, neighbor, friend, and coworker is not who I want to be. I prefer snarky or sassy, not short tempered grumpy complainer.
To keep on top of my stuff, the only solution I've found is to have less. If I were living at Downton Abbey I could have endless knick knacks and throw pillows, and my team of maids would keep them dusted and delightfully arranged. Me alone, no way.
Last spring I had a horrible case of allergies which lasted for weeks. I don't usually have them, and I was thrown. The symptoms were worse when I woke up in the morning. So I decided to do a complete cleaning out of my bed room. Maybe it was dust or dust mites or mold spores. Turns out it was seasonal, and the allergies went away on their own. However, the byproduct of my red puffy eyes is my lovely and low maintenence bedroom.
I nixed all extra decorative pillows, blankets, books, and paperwork. I can now make the bed in less than 30 seconds. I have four pillows where I used to have eight. I have one quilt that is easy to pull up keep smooth. (I hate anything I have to iron or fluff. I'm looking at you, duvets.) I took out an entire book shelf. Now we only keep the books we're reading.
It's the perfect bedroom arrangement for a lazy mom who likes things neat. I used to think I needed a bed that looked like this pillow mountain, but I've discovered I'm so much happier now with less. The real challenge is keeping the clutter from creeping back in...
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