the cycle.

My house? It's pretty tidy. But it probably isn't as tidy as all my maniacal cleaning posts would indicate. I desperately want it to be, but life gets in the way sometimes. And I get in the way a lot of times.

Some examples:

• Pots and pans. I have a lower cabinet that houses my cookware. My new set of stainless cookware. My cast iron skillet. My crepe pan. My double boiler. Those are the entire contents of the cabinet. Sometimes this cabinet is organized. Things are neatly nested. But those times are few and far between. The cycle goes like this: I grab the 3 qt saucepan that is nested neatly between the chef's pan and the 1 qt saucepan. I do not neatly renest. I set the 1 qt saucepan to the side. Then when the 3 qt saucepan goes back into the cabinet, it just gets shoved somewhere that it won't fall and make a great big crashtastic noise. Then the same thing happens with the skillets. Then the lids get out of hand. Then it's a wasteland of cookware. Then I'm fed up, and I reorganize. Then I need the 3 qt saucepan and the whole thing is gone to Hell in a hand basket.
• My underwear drawer. I routinely organize this drawer, essentially compartmentalizing it: white socks, wool socks, cute socks, underwear, bras. It looks so nice and neat. Then I do the laundry and just throw it all in willy-nilly. I am incapable of keeping this drawer neat. The same thing happens with my tee shirt drawer. There are three stacks. Short sleeved tees, long sleeved tees, tanks. Well, there are supposed to be three stacks. Normally, there are three stacks that are covered in a pile of the most commonly worn items.
• The dishtowels. I think the major drawback to my otherwise perfect-for-me kitchen is that I don't have a good place for dishtowels and rags. One drawer is kind of a junk drawer. It holds the week's issue of Newsweek, scissors, tape, crap like that. The next drawer holds cooking utensils and potholders. The third drawer is the spice drawer. The fourth drawer is the flatware drawer. We have two super deep drawers beneath the spice drawer. One holds jars and pyrex. The other holds pie plates, loaf pans, cake pans. Neither of those comes close to being filled vertically, so I think if I were redesigning, I'd have one super deep drawer and two drawers that were a little more regularly sized in the depth department. Then I'd have a place for dishtowels. As it currently stands, they are piled under the kitchen sink. This is how the cabinet should be organized.

Let's just say the drawer isn't this neat. Those towel/rag piles are all over the place, and half the time I get the corners of towels caught in the lid of the compost bucket, which means they are dirty and a little smelly before they even get taken out for use. It's a wildly imperfect system. I hate it, but every time I try to organize/fix the problem, I make it worse. Too much sugar for a dime. (That's for you, Mellie.)

Those are the three biggest problem areas. The linen closet would probably be next on the list. Because I'm totally perfect other than those four areas of my life. Ha. Anyone believe that? Me neither.

What about you? What are your biggest challenges when it comes to staying organized?