I think I discovered the secret to what makes my house run smoothly.  It isn’t being well organized, that helps.  It isn’t keeping things picked up, (that helps quite a bit too).  And it definitely isn’t keeping a Type A up- to-the-date calendar on the refrigerator that gets updated weekly….but this helps A LOT.  I have discovered it is my Vacuum!!

We have what you call a “whole house” system.  This means that the suction pipes are actually built into the walls of our home, and the big motor that sucks the dirt and dog hair from all the corners of our home is in the garage.

Normally, we LOVE this system, we have a very long vacuum hose, a vacuum head, and several locations throughout our home to plug it in.  It is light weight, and easy to use.  The problem is, when it breaks, it might be gone for a while.  This time it was gone for an ENTIRE MONTH.  Now you might think normal people would have a cheap vacuum on hand for such occasions.  You would be correct, but we are not normal, as you probably know if you have been following this blog for a while.  We have had our share of cheap (substitute) vacuums, and they all break eventually, so we just gave up.

The first week without my vacuum, I thought I could handle having dog hair everywhere.  The second week, I was at Target, staring down the aisle of cheap vacuums again, only to turn on my heel and walk out.

By the third week, I had given in and just “went with it”.  Cheerios in the carpet?  Well, they blend in, my carpet is beige.  Dirt ground into the stairs?  We are ripping it out this summer, so who cares.  Dust bunnies as big as rats?  I just turned away from them and didn’t let them intimidate me.

Then suddenly, last Saturday, it dawned on me.  The entire house was falling apart!!!!  Not only was there dirty carpet and floors throughout my home, there was garbage and yuck on the floor of each kid’s room.  My usually very organized system of each kid having their own “in box” broke and their stuff just sort of oozed across the living room floor, and I just kept using the side of my foot to push it back out of the walk way.

In box before (sort of clean)

After Vac broke

Oldest Daughter’s room

Playroom

Playroom even worse, I think there may be a body under there…..

Travis’s room, YUK!

But the scariest part of all……the part where I knew we couldn’t go on any longer like this, was when I suddenly opened the door to my laundry room.  Now to know me, is to know, I am about as TYPE A about my laundry as they come.  I can’t let my laundry sit in the dryer for more than half a second when it is dry before I must fold it and put it in everyone’s laundry basket.  I can’t ever, EVERr, let my laundry sit in the washer for more than a few minutes when the rinse cycle is completed.  And I will NEVER let Mark do the laundry.  That is off-limits.  It might not get done according to my 100 commandments of laundry doing.  This is what I experienced when I opened the door to my laundry room last Saturday.  (and no, I didn’t plan the music in the background, that was just fortuitous that happened to be playing)

My Scary Laundry Room (click here for video)

We got our vacuum back this week.  Order is not completely restored to my home just yet, but we are getting there.  The laundry is caught up, the rooms are a little cleaner, and the best part?  I found my tap shoes that had been hiding under the entertainment center, for who knows how long, when I went to vac underneath it.  Rachel was especially excited about this find.  (they actually belong to her)

Now you know the secret to the order of my universe, it kind of sucks.