Restoration

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing. ~ Phyllis Diller

It's once again Saturday and once again time to catch up from the week. I honestly don't know how the clutter gets this bad.

Someday, it'll be just me at home and the house won't need the normal Saturday restoration. I tell myself that every week. And I know I'll miss it. Not the cleaning...no, only a crazy lady would miss that. I'll miss the fact that there aren't two monsters around to create the mess.

So this Saturday, I'll contemplate on the fact that I do have those monsters aroudn to create the mess and be thankful for it. There are only a few short years left of this stage in my life.

Until later...

Overcoming Inertia

So many fail because they don't get started - they don't go. They don't overcome inertia. They don't begin.

~ W. Clement Stone

Today and tomorrow are my days to overcome inertia. Once that's been triumphed over, then I'll need to figure out how to keep the momentum going.

In living with two monsters, I end up with this clutter problem...clutter in the shape of video games, lego pieces and baseballs. My mission these next two days is to figure out a way to organize it all in a manner that lets me keep my sanity, but still lets the monsters free to do their thing.

I thought I had it figured out a few weeks ago, but what I did doesn't seem to be working. So while I have my coffee this morning, I'm going to brainstorm new, better ways to control the clutter and then impliment one. Then, when the monsters get home tomorrow, we'll be able to go through the new system.

My eyes are crossed just thinking about it.

Until later...

Purging...

Yesterday I contemplated why I don't ever accomplish anything on my "To Do" list when I'm home alone...well, that must have lit a fire under my arse, because lo and behold, I purged all day.

When the monsters and I moved in June, a lot of boxes ended up in my bedroom closet. Many of these boxes hadn't been looked at since I moved out of the house my ex and I were sharing when we split up. That's 9 years people! Nine years and 3 moves of hauling around boxes that I honestly didn't know what was inside.

So, yesterday, I emptied out my closet into piles...piles of craft boxes, piles of book boxes, piles of "What is in here???" boxes. Then there were the bags. Bags of stuff. I do that a lot. If I come home from shopping, and put a bag in my room to "get to it later", it will eventually end up in my closet when I clean. Oh, you'd think it would be easier to get to it immediately...put it away where it belongs, as I so often tell the monsters. I guess I'm firmly a "Do as I say, not as I do" parent in this regard. So, there were bags of stuff in another pile.

I went through one box that had pictures of when the monsters were small. It was so sweet to sit and look at those first pictures and remember when I was overwhelmed by this new being I was responsible for. I'm still as overwhelmed, but now it's because I'm the taxi for this being.

I also came upon a lot of things from high school, some things from my wedding and other "What should I do with this, now?" things.

I managed to go through 15 boxes and condense them down to six. A lot of stuff ended in a trash bag, and really, if I think about it, more could end up there, but I couldn't purge EVERYTHING this time around. I think the world would tilt on its axis if I did something that major.

My closet no longer looks as though it will explode if the doors get opened when I'm not around to put my hand just so as I slowly slide the one side open...you know what I'm talking about!

Today, I'm thinking that I'll do the same thing in the laundry room. Then again...Sundays are to be a day of rest, aren't they? Maybe I should just rest. But the energy to purge is here, and I think I'll take advantage of that before it's gone.

Until later...