Thursday, August 15, 2013

Tornado Alley

By this I am referring, of course, to my house.

Between the string of birthdays around here, having my niece here for a few days (which means that she and my same-age eldest co-produced an incredible volume of crafts!), being at the cottage on weekends (which means laundry, grocery shopping, packing and organizing on Fridays, and unpacking and more laundry on Monday mornings), h/school books and supplies and papers all over the place, and general life chaos, I haven't paid any attention to the state of the house for a good few weeks...and, believe me, it shows!

Every. single. room. in the house, including closets and bathrooms, needs attention...tidying and cleaning.  It's a little embarrassing, in addition to which I'm never completely comfortable in such a messy house.  I wasn't even sure where to start, but while the kids were trampolining yesterday afternoon, I spent about thirty minutes in the mudroom, tidying weeks of that room being the dumping ground for everything that came through the house.  I probably need an equal amount of time yet to finish that job, but it's looking way better already.  Next up after that??  Organizing the hundreds of audio books that we have accumulated through the years, which I gathered together a few weeks ago, dumped onto the dresser in my bedroom, and left there in piles ever since.

It'll be nice to tick at least a few things off of my two-page-long project list!


6 comments:

  1. Our house looks like tornado alley as well :-) Once we had our referral we suddenly realized we don't have much time to de-clutter, organize, get kids'rooms ready and by ready I mean take out all the stuff I've managed to store in there over the last 6 years! I am naturally messy, hubby is naturally tidy but it seems that I have had more influence in our home. Bedrooms are finally cleaned out and ready with all the contents now moved and sitting in various areas of the house including the dining room table and hallway. It really seems never ending at times but I can see progress. Even for a natural messy this kind of mess bothers me. So without having children home yet we have managed to create tornado alley! Will be thinking of you as you work though your list and we work through ours :-)

    Allison

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  2. Ahh...commiseration...thanks! All the best on your list, Allison...we'll plug away on them together!

    Ruth

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  3. I'm with ya. We're moving October 3, and are terrible pack rats, with a double-sized garage (can't use for cars, since it's back beyond the fence) full to the brim, along with the house. We got the cellar mostly done (uninhabitable, like the garage, so perfect for stacking to the ceiling with Rubbermaid bins). We love "history" and "vintage" and "memories" and seasonal decorating, so keep and accept everything that comes our way. Two of us working 8-12 hours per day over the 3 days of the August long weekend took care of most of the cellar. I've dumped most of my (hideously large collection of) clothes all over my bedroom, to sort, and of course can't get it finished, so have been living for weeks in a wasteland of increasingly cat/dog-hairy piles with patches of furry hardwood showing here and there. Good times.

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  4. OK, so you've made me feel a bit better, Joy...thanks!

    Two weeks ago I managed to get through our master bedroom closet - it was such a mess! I pulled out 35-40 pieces of my own clothes that I used to wear in my professional life and which, sadly, I'm not in need of at the moment or for the next while (by which time the clothes will be out of date). I'm going to try consigning these clothes - they're still in great shape and many of them are quite lovely. I understand there's a market for consignment clothes for larger women so I'm going to give it a shot...maybe that'll help finance the wardrobe of next year...which, sigh, will likely consist of sweat pants and capris and ratty shirts!!

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  5. Oh my! I laughed out loud just reading the title and first sentence!!
    Having done 3 back to back trips with only one 20 hr stop at home part way through, I walked in to my house a couple hours ago and let out a huge sigh (of disgust!) when I looked at the state of everything. So now I need to get my house repectable before company comes on Sunday while also working through a mound of peed of 3yr old clothes/sleeping bag from our canoe trip, all the rest of the laundry and get some food in the house. Then, there would be the many jobs I planned to do this summer to get the house re-organized, but now there are only 2 weeks left before going back to work... sigh, again...
    Ellen

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  6. Well, it sounds like a lot of fun has been had Ellen! Good on you for taking on three back-to-back trips...and yeah that must leave a total chaos in the house. I'll be thinking of you as you get ready for company coming on Sunday - you've got your hands very full!!

    Hugs,

    Ruth

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