As promised, it is now "after Christmas," and The Great Room Exchange is underway. To be honest, we've barely begun, but the house is in a state of complete disarray, and I feel the need to take a break, *pause*, and...uh...panic.
Call it what you want, (type A or whatever), but I'm the kind of person who likes things to be in their place. Not to say that my house is always white-glove clean, but I don't like clutter much, and I'd prefer for us to only have in our house what we currently need at this point in time. The rest can be thrown out or given away, because I don't want it taking up precious space. The only problem is that this takes a great deal of organization and work. And frankly, I'm pregnant, I have a toddler, and I'm tired.
Right now Brian is cleaning out the small bedroom that has been his office since he bought this house in 2001. You can imagine what this means, especially for an IT guy. The closet is spewing cables, printers, laptops, keyboards, hard drives, out of date computer books, floppy disks and CD-Rom's from who knows when. Not to mention all the file cabinets that haven't been purged in 7 years. So while he's keeping busy in there, I'm feeling the need to reorganize in other areas of the house to make room. My own desk space in the attic could use some rearranging, I need to organize and store Katy's old clothes to make room for little boy clothes, and in the midst of this, I've convinced myself that we've gotta do something about the main bathroom (something = new floors, new sink, accessories, and possibly paint). I also realized while closet-digging that I started a scrapbook of Katy's "first year" and didn't get very far. *deep breath* The trick is talking myself out of the mantra repeating itself in my head: "All of this MUST be done before New Baby arrives."
This is reminding me of the advantage of moving every year. Between graduating high school and getting married, I had 14 different mailing addresses (in 10 years). While it was a pain to move that often, of course, (it always seemed necessary, though now I'm not sure why), the greatest thing was the annual purge of everything you owned. I only kept what I needed, because I certainly didn't want to move anything extra. And my papers, books, music, and clothes were sorted through annually, too, and the extras gotten rid of. Now I've lived here for 2 and a half years, and Brian for 7, and we've managed to accumulate some stuff. Ugh.
But the one thing getting me through all of this work is how great it will be when it's all done. I can't wait to post before-and-afters, and be able enjoy the sight of organized closets. And it will get done, one way or another. But for your sake, I hope you don't have to come to my house anytime soon, because eeesh...what a mess.
5 comments:
LOL!!! Darling, you come from a long line of pack rats! I have no idea how to reconcile this neat streak you have developed with your ancestry of saving.
I think there is some rule that no matter how big your home is, your possessions will expand to fill the available space within a couple of years. I'm sure when you have children, the possessions expand annually with an exponent of the number of kids in your household. :-)
My only advice is . . . California closets or something like that. That way it LOOKS better and you might be able to find stuff.
Sell on Craig's list, give to charity (get those much needed recepits for taxes), & chuck out! I'm with you 100% but Craig is a hoarder and refuses even to throw the most ridiculous things away - including annoying IT stuff like Brian has. He also has t-shirts that he hasn't worn in 7 years.
Yes, let's get together soon - are you around this weekend? Maybe the kiddos can have a play-date for an hour one afternoon?
I can totally relate, seeing as I was in your exact situation this time last year. Your list of things to do before the new baby comes will never get done in its entirety, so finish the important stuff now and don't stress about what didn't get accomplished. I was a total neat-freak before we had kids, but I've learned to let things slide (sort of!). At least try to vacuum every day...it makes the room look a lot better with a clean floor. =)
Hey! Thanks for commenting on my blog! This made me chuckle, cause my baby # 2 is 13 months old and her bedroom still has NO DOOR on it, 'cause the door was broken and her daddy has yet to make fixing it a priority. :) yet we've managed to survive...good luck!!
Brian: Don't throw any of your stuff away! I assure you, you'll need that DOS 3.1 book and the 20' Centronics cable next week.
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