A place for everything--NOT!

Will I EVER get it together??!!! (I mean before the next life-I'm assuming that it will happen then, but I keep hoping I'll get some of it together before I die!) I have hopes and dreams and plans of getting organized, of having my house look like those magazines and friends homes that always look immaculate! And I sometimes work on putting those plans into action, but I never seem to get anywhere!!! (maybe that word "sometimes" has something to do with it!)

The desk in my kitchen is in a CONSTANT state of myriad piles! It drives me nuts! When company is coming I hastily scoop up the piles and sit them on top of the washing machine in the laundry room. Then when it's time to do laundry, it gets scooped up and put back on the desk again!!!

I determine to clean it off and actually wade through the piles, sorting, discarding, putting away everything from stray paper clips and those squishy polly pocket dresses to forgotten bills that accidentally got mixed in with the pictures my kids have drawn and that coupon that I really want to use, but probably will never be able to find when I actually have time to go to that store! It takes a lot of time, but it's worth it. The desk looks great!!!--for a day, or maybe two if I'm lucky and then, it's right back to clutter city! It's where everything that we don't know what to do with gets piled! If I knew where to put it, I would, but I don't and so there it sits, making me feel like a failure as a homemaker!

Last year, I was determined to conquer the desk!!! Even if the rest of my house was a mess, the desk was going to be pristine!!! I know this means that I have to establish a place for all of the papers and stuff that continually comes into my home by the truck load. So I took the birthday money that both my mom and mom-in-law gave to me and I spent it entirely on the desk. I got on-line and learned how to make a shelf out of a cheap door. Hubders had to help me make one cut, but I did the rest. I painted it black and installed it. Then I bought desk organizer stuff, all of it in matching black wire.

I then organized everything, put it all in the newly labeled file folders, pencil holders etc. It looked fabulous!!! The black and light blue went great together! It looked like it could have even come out of a third rate home decorating magazine!! (okay, so maybe fourth rate!) I was thrilled!

But, the reality is--I still have papers that don't fit into the labeled file folders, stray bits of life still constantly accumulate on the desk and it generally looks as pitiful as it did before, with some color coordination thrown in. SIGH!

This is the usual state of the desk. Notice the top drawer that recently broke, a lovely addition!

This is the desk in it's pristine form, a rarity of embarrassing proportions!