Let’s be honest.

Although I obsessively search home design sites on a daily (maybe hourly?) basis, Jason isn’t that into it. I am in love with our website and all of the possibilities that it could hold for us and the home. He loves our home just as much as I do, and wants to show off our hard work… except..

“All of those sites are so pristine,” he told me, “like nothing is out of place.”

I remember sitting puzzled and then realized what he meant. He found that all of those sites were lying a little (although I still hold out hope that most of these websites do actually live in the most organized, clean home ever) about what their home looked like on a daily basis.

So we sat down and asked ourselves — if we can’t compete with always-clean home design (come on, both of us working 40 hour weeks and having a roommate is not a straight route to constant organization or cleanliness) we can compete with lived-in home design. Because I am the optimist, I feel as though there is a way to make sure our house is constantly tidy. No, it’s not always camera-ready but really, what house is?

Now we finally have a mission statement for this site: we are chasing the dream for a home that works for life, not still life.

In the future, expect a little mess, like our post on how our office looks on a daily basis. I’m going to be completely honest in our future home photo shoots. Yes, we’re going to show the dog kennel (it actually sits right next to the dining room table) and the puppies’ food bowls. I’m going to show what normally ends up on our coffee table during the middle of the week. And through this, I’m (hopefully!) going to show how it’s possible to make a home organize itself and still look like a home that the people who live in it enjoy thoroughly. I’ve realized that barely anyone notices if the towels are all lined up (and if there are three on the rack instead of two) but there are things that do make one notice.

For the past week, I have been driving home that the dining room table is no more a storage spot. Anything that ends up on the table goes immediately into the bedrooms, on the key rack, on the side table, etc. After a few days it has become less messy. Sure, the occasional magazine or coffee cup stays around for a day, but it leaves sooner than later. Maybe soon we can actually eat at our dining table instead of in front of the tv on the coffee table (which is up next).

So look forward to a change in posts. Not everything is going to be shown (we’re not trying to do a site on mess) but we’re going to show how to make it work. I can’t make sure the dog toys are always put away or if Bennett puts the towel back in place, but there are going to be ways to make it happen without consistent cleaning up.

Every month, we’ll have a new tour of the home. Show how things have cleaned up, and what hasn’t, and maybe figure out why. And hopefully our viewers will take a look at this website with a different feeling, and maybe realize that a clean, well-designed house isn’t a dream but a reality.