Home for the Holidays

Last night I went to a home party at a neighbor’s house.  I’ve been over her house a few times now, and not only is her home *spotless*, but it’s amazingly decorated.  She can literally have a party in her home at 2 minutes notice.  Perfect little vignettes of gorgeous accessories and holiday decorations – all with two little boys in the house.  Snow white counter tops, cabinets, and floors without a speck of dog hair despite her two rather large Golden Retrievers.  Hell, even her kitchen trash can was clean.  And the clincher?  Not one baby toy in sight (I do know the kids have a playroom in the basement).  It was all I could do not to ignore the party demonstration and stare at the decor.

So why is it that I don’t even want to open my front door all the way when the UPS driver rings my bell?  The front of my house is completely ripped apart and stacked high with STUFF.  I have no place for most of it, and on top of that decided to repaint the front living room.  My home is quickly starting to look like something from a reality TV show.  After seeing my neighbor’s home in some detail, I can no longer blame the kids for taking all my time and keeping me from cleaning and purging.  It will take me two solid weeks to get my house ready for a party (the baby’s first birthday is coming up).  TWO WEEKS and that just means clean, not decorated.  I want to have people over our home, especially for the holidays. With the baby’s birthday being on Halloween, it’s a great kickoff to the holiday season, and an excuse to have company over.

It’s been 10 years and I haven’t really been able to get the hang of decorating.  Repainting and repurposing our front living room into a media/gaming room is a start.  Maybe if I start with one room, I can do it.  The living room is pretty segmented off from the rest of the house and feels more manageable to decorate. I always see pretty stuff in the stores – when I happen to walk by those aisles, I don’t window shop for home decor because I am intimidated – but can’t imagine what my home could look like.  Hiring a decorator is out of the question because I would feel that it was someone else’s home, not mine.  Maybe what I need is a blueprint, a plan that says ‘hang a 30×40 picture on this wall, put a vase and flowers here” type of deal.  Then I can just fill in the blanks.  I’d love pretty serving dishes and seasonal place mats, but because my house is a disaster, I won’t invite anyone over to even get a chance to use the items.

The main reason my home is not decorated is because we have too much STUFF.  We don’t use most of the stuff that we have, but for some reason feel the need to hang on to it.  My issue is actually that I fear filling garbage dumps with my stuff, so it’s better off in my home.  I’ve been going the Goodwill route, in fact I’ve got a pile of baby gear in the front hall waiting for about 2 months to go.  I am beyond sick of my house being cluttered, but honestly don’t even know where to begin at this point.  It’s not that I want help with the purging per se, but help with the kids or hauling trash to the curb Sunday night would be awesome.  My husband always says ‘just ask’ (and no, this post is not meant to nag him), but housework is a very lonely job and sometimes it’s just really nice to have someone to talk to while you are tossing junk.  The overload in my home is severly depressing, and is seemingly worse just as the days are getting shorter and the four walls are starting to close in a bit tighter.  I dream of the day I can just wake up, walk through my house with a mug of coffee, look around, and be content.  Right now all I want to do is walk out the front door and visit someone else’s home.