It's still a mystery to my early childhood friends who remember my room a designated disaster with clothes piled everywhere and no organization. Sometime around my sophmore or junior year in college, I did a complete 180. I remember people commenting on how neat my dorm room was, it helped my roommate was the same way. I never looked back and almost 20 years later, still need to have everything in place and clean. As one imagines, the challenge is when you cohabitate  and or/have children. I remember everyone telling me that it would change and I would have to give in. I never believed them for a minute.

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The cohabitation came first when I moved in with my boyfriend (now husband) after 2 years. Along with his Soprano's looking couch, came his very bachelor habits to match. The spare couch became his 2nd bureau and the coffee table became the leaning tower of magazine/newspaper. Apparently, his mother who I was never fortunate to meet, had the same OCD qualities as myself. Fortunately, that worked out to my advantage, where one might rebel, my husband adapted and acclimated.

About 4 years later, we had our son. And this is when things changed. The first couple of months the living room was overtaken with baby bottles, baby pillow, exercise mat and whatever else was going to entertain a newborn. I remember one of my favorite parts of the day was cleaning up and looking at the neat and organized house for the 15 minutes before going to bed and waking up and it starting all over again. As time went on and he got older, we've actually been able to get our house back mostly looking like a grownups home and not a pre-school. I was reminded of how far I've come today. Between my son being sick and his school closed for spring break, there's been a lot of playtime and 'projects' in the house. Today's project featured toilet paper inspired blanket and pillows for his pack of stuffed animal dogs. I work at home so I've been pretty used to a clean space during the day, but I actually commend myself for coping skills. When 5pm hit, I got the vacuum, he started putting things away and pretty quickly, the room looked livable again.

I guess kids really DO change you!

- Deb

Wired Mommy