Storm Before the Calm

My sister and I both came up with this concept almost simultaneously.  (Discoveries, like calculus, are often made by two or more people simultaneously.  It seems as if, when an idea is "ready for prime time," it sometimes jumps into existence in two places at once.)  Anyway, the idea is "the storm before the calm."  It's that period of time, in housecleaning, when everything's been hauled out and things are in disarray, but before everything is put back into its proper place.  For a while, in other words, things look worse on their way to looking better.  (This can also be used an excuse when you didn't get as much done as you hoped to get done!)