The coffee table is stacked with notebooks and sketchpads. The dining table is covered in a disarray of art supplies rendering it useless for actual dining. A meditation cushion sits in front of the fireplace on the living room floor with a blanket thrown on top. The camera is on a side table next to the couch that also holds a cable tv guide and a book I’m eventually going to read. Shoes and jackets, towels and chairs, dog toys and camera equipment sit behind the couch, our dumping spot upon entering our apartment. All the clothes and random other things that have nowhere else to go are kept in big plastic bins and are stored behind the couch where I cover them with a black sheet so they’re less of an eyesore.
Components of the blender are spread out to dry on a towel in the kitchen, ready to be reassembled each morning when it’s time to mix up the greens. The colander takes up permanent residence in the left compartment of the sink. The coffee stays out on the counter, next to the spoon that I use and reuse and use again with nothing more than a rinse in between. The junk bowl next to the refrigerator overflows with candy, koozies, ticket stubs, thank you cards, papers, batteries, sunglasses, air fresheners for the car and a leftover diaper from the recent visit of my niece, Chloe. Giant tubs of protein powder, a candle warmer, a running grocery list, disinfectant wipes, dog treats, vitamins, a camera battery, a phone charger and a stack of random papers take up what’s left of the counter space. A bag of recyclables hangs from the closet door.
There is a pile of clothes next to my bed. They aren’t dirty enough for the laundry basket or clean enough for the drawer, they are my in-betweens and that’s where they live until I’ve decided that’s enough and put them in the wash. The dresser top holds books, nail polish, a baseball cap, lotion, chapstick, perfume, jewelry, a lamp, a phone charger, small scraps of paper and a light layer of dust. The bed is loosely made and the windows are open to the light and that’s good enough for me.
I wonder if everyone’s life is so messy? Do other people leave their clothes in the dryer for days upon days, pulling out one clean item at a time before finally giving in and just folding them all? Do they have to-do lists scribbled in notebooks and on small pieces of paper floating around in their purse? Do they have multiple projects going at once, all in various degrees of completion and some that will probably never get done? Or is it just me?
A scroll through Pinterest tries to convince me that everyone’s life is much more orderly than my own.
They have studio spaces that look like this:
www.designismine.blogspot.com
And kitchens that look like this:
www.remodelista.com
Where they cook food that looks like this:
www.damndelicious.net
And have bodies and yoga practices that look like this:
www.mindbodygreen.com – Briohny Smyth
There is no real point to this story other than this small admission – my life doesn’t look anything like Pinterest. I don’t live in a perfectly staged world where everything is always in it’s place. For all the times I’ve tried to make my life look more shiny and put together than it really is, forgive me, I won’t do it again.
Starting today I have a new mantra: Embrace the mess!
Is your life messy and beautiful at the same time? Tell me about it!
