Capture the Everyday: Place Where Things Pile Up

When I saw this week's prompt from Adventuroo, my immediate question was "place"? As in singular? Like I just have one pile and everything else is neatly put away?

Yeah, right.

A couple years ago I wrote about the pile on top of my dresser as an archaeological dig. Thinking of it as a science experiment somehow made me feel better about this mess.

For this post, I just made the circle around my downstairs and found the following ELEVEN gems -- by artsifying them in Instagram, I am somehow less ashamed.

Laundry Room

In theory, the hooks are a good way to organize. In reality, they become a messy catch-all for things that don't belong.

Paint supplies and furniture sliders from the renovation (that we finished in APRIL), plus laundry bags, two sun hats and the corner of a Zappos box for returning the ugly hats.

Kitchen

 The primary counter, which should be for people sitting at the counter stools we haven't bought yet, is covered with mail, cups, purse, lunch boxes and my husband's iPhone.

In the floor area under the counter where we don't have the counter stools we seem to be storing our borrowed card tables (for monthly summer happy hour), two rugs we had to pull out of the attic after the latest leak and a duffle bag and table cloth left over from camping.

This is my lovely kitchen desk area. Too bad you can barely see the fancy granite we picked out. This is more mail, coupons, bills, lists, school pictures, preschool projects, travel-sized toothpaste and phone messaged. The pile is going vertical by creeping up the wall, too.

Foyer

The pool bag and a stack of at least five beach towels rest on the chest by our front door. At least they're not on the floor anymore.

This pile on the table beside the font door is unusually small -- just Pippi's artwork from today's preschool camp, one list, a copy of The New Yorker and our empty Produce Box.

Living Room

This sad space is my tiny desk, crammed with stickers, Flip cam, iPod, photos, lists, newspaper clippings, birthday party invitations and a basket full of random papers leftover from my last attempt at organization. At least my laptop isn't on the kitchen counter anymore.

Stacked on top of my grandfather's china cabinet you'll find children's books that I bought to give as birthday and new baby gifts. Note that not one of them is wrapped. And on top is the enormous, glamorous hat #5 that Casey (so far accurately) predicted I would never actually wear.

Dining Room

 On one side of the dining room cabinets you'll find my grandmother's deviled egg dish (c'mon, every Southern girl has to have one) hidden by empty gift bags, gift list (for which not one single thank you note has been written), party favors and presents from Junius' birthday party. Which was almost a week ago.

And on the other side of the dining room cabinets, there's the birthday head band thingy, a kid's book CD, a picture from Pippi and a friend-decorated picture frame that needs to have the picture put in it so we can hang it on the wall.

Ugh. 

Clearly I am in desperate need of an intervention from my friends Julie at Simplify Your Life or Molly at Go Mom! Inc. 

How about you? Help me know I'm not alone -- what piles are building up around your house?

Capture the Everyday is about getting you to capture those everyday moments in your life! Each Thursday, Melissa at Adventuroo will issue a simple challenge to capture something that’s a part of your daily life. You can post just a picture or add some words to go along with it. You’ll have a week to get it done and then she’ll issue another. It’s a quick, easy way to start capturing those little parts of life we sometimes take for granted.