A Breakdown

break·down n.  

•       a. The act or process of failing to function or continue.

                   b. The condition resulting from this.

•       An analysis, an outline, or a summary consisting of itemized data or essentials.

I just love a multi-dimensional blog title, don't you?  This evening's post will reference not only the breakdown of today's House Beautiful project, but also the mental breakdown I experienced at day's end.  Now doesn't that sound fun?  Hahaha.

Technically, the Family Room was on today's agenda for Operation Get the House Ready to Sell.  But, knowing that our real estate agent was planning on coming over at some point tomorrow to take a look at what she has to work with, I decided it would probably be best to pass on the DEEP cleaning for the day and simply settle on regular cleaning the rest of the main floor.  I knocked that out of the ballpark by midday and decided to really go the extra mile by MOPPING the kitchen floor.  Because it was filthy.  And I don't even know the last time it's been cleaned.  Seriously -- I don't.  

After feeding the kids some lunch and putting Alex down for his nap, I hauled out the mop and bucket and the Murphy's Wood Soap and got to work.  {Sidenote -- I just looked up the Murphy's online and found out that apparently you're NEVER supposed to use it on wood floors.  Hmmmm.  What you CAN use is Windex.  What???}  An hour and a half or so later {and after having to change out the water in the bucket SEVERAL times} I was finally done.  And it looked spectacular.

View A -- Before

View A -- After

View B -- Before

View B -- After

View C -- Before

View C -- After

The Floors -- Before

 The Floors -- After

I finished up with the mopping just as Alex was waking up and let him and Jane head on down to the basement to watch a library DVD while I put everything away and tidied up some odds and ends.  It was only a few minutes later that the aforementioned mental breakdown occurred.   When I went down into the basement to help Jane put on a different movie, I discovered that all of my hard work from over the weekend was completely and totally destroyed.  Even though we had put all the bins and buckets of toys into storage after cleaning on Saturday night, we {foolishly} left the games and puzzles up on the shelves to put away another day.  Big mistake.  Huge.  

As I rounded the corner coming down the stairs, I was greeted with a scene of horrifying proportions.  Almost every puzzle we own was dumped out and scattered in a giant pile all around the TV and surrounding areas.  Also in that mix were a few board games and card games and the remnants of Jane's apple slices and cheese that she had asked me to get her for a snack earlier that afternoon.  And there were pillows and blankets everywhere.  It was a disaster.  And it completely incapacitated me.  Seriously.  Just ask Scott.  Because that's who I called up -- crying -- after yelling at Jane and Alex for making such a mess.  I have been working SO hard to get this house cleaned up and ready to go and this mess of theirs was just a giant metaphor for what this process has felt like to me.  Every time I turn around it seems like there's a new mess waiting for me to clean.  Or re-clean as the case may be.

I would have taken a picture for documentation sake, but I was too entrenched in my down-breaking to bother with getting a camera and snapping a shot.  The older kids got home from the bus while I was still sobbing to Scott on the phone and to their credit pitched right in to start cleaning up the mess.  Well, at least Ethan and Sophie did.  Grace was too busy crying and having her own breakdown after her negotiation for TV time in exchange for cleaning was rejected.

It took some time, but finally, finally everything got cleaned up and everyone calmed down.  Even me.  Ethan was extra awesome and helped me to put all the games and puzzles safely into storage when we were done so that we NEVER have to deal with a mess like that again.  At least not while we're still in this house.  Hahaha.  All's well that end's well and I'll sleep easy tonight knowing that the house is now {mostly} in order.  And on that note I'll end.  Goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow!