I was having a great day today until I opened my mailbox. And, there it was—the Pottery Barn catalog. Bring on the antidepressants!

Since becoming a mom, I’ve come to loathe Pottery Barn for its pages of household perfection. Thumbing through the catalog, I find nicely organized living areas free of clutter, even in the children’s bedrooms and playrooms. It’s scenes like those that make me feel like a failure.

Why can’t my house look like that? Well, for starters, three kids aren’t helping my pursuit of the Pottery Barn dream. Toys scattered across the floor are now a permanent part of my home décor. There’s also the fact that I’m just not a neat, organized person by nature, but let’s forget that part. It’s more fun to blame Pottery Barn instead of acknowledging my personal shortcomings.

The thing that eats away at me the most about the Pottery Barn catalog is those darn baskets. Well, there is that lemon of a kitchen table I bought, too. Let’s get back the baskets though.

Nearly every room in the catalog is equipped with a half dozen baskets, which surely must be the key to an organized home. I bought into that lie anyway. In my quest for organization, I thought if I just had those magical baskets, I’d have a clutter-free home, too. Of course, I wasn’t going to drop that much cash on baskets. Thanks to my friend Laura, I learned that you could buy organization baskets at Lowe’s for a fraction of the cost.

Euphoria set in as I brought the baskets home and filled them with toys and books. I just knew this was the end of my organizational woes. It didn’t take long for that dream to shatter. I learned that having baskets doesn’t solve the issue. You must have kids who actually pick up their toys and put them in the baskets. Pottery Barn doesn’t sell children, but I’m sure if it did, those kids would be wearing clothes with their monograms neatly embroidered across the front. Yes, that’s another thing that irks me about Pottery Barn. Do we have to monogram everything we own?

All kidding aside, I know the marketing execs at Pottery Barn probably aren’t sitting around a table (hopefully it’s better than the one I own) trying to think of ways to make me miserable. The real problem is I, like many moms, spend too much time and energy pursuing perfection. The truth is very few of us will have homes as pristine as those that grace the pages of Pottery Barn. A little chaos is certain as long as children are in the house.

So, do me a favor the next time I visit your home. Leave some dirty dishes out in the kitchen, some toys out of the floor for me to trip on, and maybe even a basket of unfolded clothes in the family room. Didn’t you hear that sloppy is now in?

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