A Clean House...What's That?

I want my house to be clean.  I want my house to be organized and clutter free.  I want my laundry to be 100% done, clean and put away in drawers.  I truly want these things and maybe if I keep saying it, somehow magically overnight it will happen.

But I doubt it. 

So I have been thinking that maybe a clean, organized house is not in the cards for me.  Here are my excuses reasons:

1.  I would LOVE to hire a cleaning lady.  Problem is, I would have to clean up for the cleaning lady.  Seriously, I just can't win here.   

2.  I work from home. And by "work" I mean I am home with my children and 4 other children on daily basis as a home daycare provider.  So even though I am home all day, it might come as a shock to people that I don't have much time to get housework done with 6 kids here all day.  Not only can I not get housework done, most of what I do get done gets UNDONE in about 5 minutes flat.

3.  When I get one teeny tiny little smidgen of time to myself, I don't give a crap about cleaning.  I feel guilty about sitting on my ass and watching TV when the kids are in bed and I should be doing one of the million  things that needs to be done.  But the guilt goes away with each passing minute of Real Housewives drama.

4.  I have kids...plural.  I look back at pictures when I only had my oldest daughter.  My house was so neat and clutter free.  It is sickening.  And it seems like a distant memory or maybe something that happened in a past life.  But it did happen and now it doesn't.  Once I had my 2nd child I didn't have the time to clean up immediately after my older daughter made a mess.  Then it just got to be more and more overwhelming.  So maybe I just gave up.  Who knows.  Plus we 3 girls we have an extremely large collection of toys that take up half of a living room, a sun porch, 2 bedrooms...and sometimes the dining room, bathroom, my bedroom, and...okay, it takes up the whole house.  I am thinking a move might have to happen sometime in our future.

5.  Cleaning sucks.  Bottom line..that is the truth. 

I love a clean house...it is just the getting there that is the problem.  So I am hoping as the kids get older and I have more time, I can get back to a clean,organized house.  I plan on doing some of this myself but mainly by making my kids do it.  Hey, I will pay them an allowance.  I am figuring with 3 kids I can have them do at least 75% of the housework which I will call "chores" and it will be worth every penny.