_______Dirty Little Secret

Okay, so I couldn't be completely honest about how I keep my house clean if I didn't also divulge this dirty little secret.  You know how most families have a junk drawer?  The kind of drawer where they stash all the random items that don't have a permanent home?  Items like magnets, mini-screwdrivers, millions of little pieces of paper with once-pertinent information, and roughly 300 non-working ink pens?

Well, we too used to have a junk drawer when we lived in our California condo.  Tsk, tsk you might say.  How very unorganized of you, Megan.  Well, truth be told, we no longer have a junk drawer.  In our new, spacious home, we now have the luxury of having a junk room.  Our office, secured from our children and young visitors with this handy device...

...is where we stash any items that could potentially clutter the counter tops.  Adel keeps his desk pretty neat, except for the mound of papers on the floor waiting for the shredder.  My desk is usually cluttered with preschool notes, calendars, birthday party invitations, and pages I've torn out of magazines for one reason or another.  But the state of the floor is entirely the kids' doing.  This room also serves as their craft room.  For some reason, they usually feel the need to pull out pretty much everything at once.

I have done my best to organize this junk room / office.  Inspired by my friend Jen who went on an organization spree and labeled all her toy cubbies, I also created a label system for helping the kids put away their craft supplies.

So when I actually enforce the system (rather than ignoring the mess-making in an effort to get something accomplished) the room has the potential to look like this:

Oh how that sight makes my type-A alter-ego smile.  Although I try to be sneaky throughout the day when I want to hop on the computer with a writing idea or to check my email, my children have amazingly accurate sensors for when the office door is ajar and there is no keeping them out when I'm in.  And when we're in here together, I can honestly say I do my best do ignore their activities/mess so that I can concentrate. Consequently, the room almost always looks like this:

Actually, it usually looks even messier than that, with half the boxes and their entire contents on the floor.  It's not the worst thing in the world, but since that's the general state of our office, you can understand why I keep the door closed when you stop by!  Oh how I love having a room to stash the mess and clutter.  After the door closes, I forget the mess exists.  Sure beats cleaning. (And yes, Isaac is not wearing pants.  This is also the general state of our lives!)