If you can’t be the good example, be the horrible warning.  That’s where I come in.

Our house gets messy fast.  Generally, I don’t stress over it.  I’m a terrible housekeeper, husband doesn’t really care, and the kids make a minimalist, magazine ready home nigh impossible to keep up.

Let me just say, in my defense, I did just have a baby. Okay, it was 6+ weeks ago but still.  That’s good for at least a 6 month free pass on cleaning, right?

There are times that I wish I was a little more obsessive about our baseboards.  And cobwebs. And mopping.

This is one such time.  I was happily ignoring my dust bunnies (which, let’s face it, are really dust jackalopes) and tweeting about the Great Shrinking Grocery Conundrum.  Companies put less stuff in the same size bag, but charge you the same in a sneaky back-door way to raise prices.

So I started a discussion about it on my blogfrog and tweeted the link.  Someone saw the link and was interested to find out more.  That someone was a reporter.  She interviewed me over the phone, and we got to talking about price books.

A few hours later, the NYT calls me to ask if they can send a photographer out. Tomorrow. In less than 24 hours.  Holy wha??? And I said yes.  Holy WHA???

So of course the first thing  I did was go to Target.  Naturally.

After mightily resisting the urge to buy all new throw pillows, I settled for new guest towels, without marker stains, for the downstairs bath.  A bottle of GooGone, some jeans without an elastic maternity panel, and a new lipstick, and I’m ready to take on the world.

Of course, I still have to muck out the toilet.  On the plus side, I’ve found a lot of our missing spoons.  It’s been like a giant game of hidden picture. There’s a spoon nestled in the cookbooks, in the drawer where we keep the bike helmets, next to the PS3, and two in the couch cushions.

Back to cleaning.  I’ll probably replace the burned out bulbs in the ceiling fans and possibly- dare I say it- wash a window instead of closing the blinds.  Just in case the photographer wants natural light.  And I’ll have to wipe out the pantry, just in case we need to take a look in there since the story is about food and all.

But as is usually the case, Baby J needs her mommy rightthisveryminute. She’s extra clingy tonight and doesn’t want me to put her down, and I can’t babywear AND fumigate the bathroom at the same time.  So we’ll just chill and I’ll try to update my price book with one hand while nursing.  Thank goodness my blog isn’t called “Organized Mom” or “Fresh and Clean” or something that would make me look like a hypocrite.

Nope, I think the photographer is just going to have to realize that “discombobulated and disorganized” isn’t just my tagline- it’s my life. The good thing about having nine children is by the time they all find a place on the couch, you can’t see any of the stains on the cushions.  Actually, you can’t see the cushions at all.

Maybe we should just take pictures outside.  In the neighbor’s yard.

What’s the first thing you tackle when you panic clean?