It’s time for a move.
Since my matriculation to That University I Attended, I haven’t lived in the same dwelling longer than two years.
Now, this is a total pain in the ass in some respects: I don’t like packing and unpacking, nor do I like searching for a place to call home. BUT, every time I move I end up doing two things:
- I get rid of all of the inconsequential crap that I have laying around,
- and I carefully organize everything once we get into the new place so that things have Their Own Space.
So. We’ve been in this house three-and-a-half years now and we have no plans to move. We like it here. We’re settled.
But today, after attempting to locate homes for all of the new stuff we got this holiday season - in addition to all of the xmas stuff I had to put away, I realized that our nomadic tendencies were the only thing keeping us “clean.”
I should have known that after this long in one space the crap would start taking over; it was always at the edge of overtaking us at the two-year moving point. So, this time, due to the non-nomadic nature of the Family Unit, it’s gotten completely out of hand.
Oh, and I know exactly how it started: I can’t get rid of things that we might use again.
You know, important things:
- my first set of dishes (Um, we have two other sets now.),
- salvaged tissue for re-use in gift bags (It looks like crap no matter how much I iron it. (ok, so I don’t really iron tissue, but it probably would look better if I did.)) ,
- a mattress - without box springs (Really, who wants a mattress without the box springs?), and
- our fondue pot (There’s no room for it in the kitchen.)
So you can see how an item here and there turned our storage area into some sort of weird urban sprawl, making it exceedingly difficult to walk in the storage area, much less place additional items in it.
Oh, and you know what’s so great about this house? We have TWO, count ‘em - TWO, storage areas.
Both. completely. jacked. up.
Sooo, you’d think that if I organized the storage areas everything would be peachy, right? No. It wouldn’t. Because the rest of the house is a disaster as well.
- My baking equipment falls out of the cupboard every time I open it because it’s poorly arranged;
- the pantry and small appliance storage area has become the pantrysmallappliance storage area with food tucked carefully between the mixer and the food processor, on top of the crockpot, and beside the waffler and sandwich maker (hence no room for the fondue pot);
- the closet in our bedroom is overflowing with all kinds of bags that we don’t use and AJ has clothes on the floor that have literally been there for six months to a year, depending on the item;
- the family room (ahem, the whole house) is full of large toy items that don’t store well;
- our bedroom sports Target bags, hangers, and other random items on the floor from unpacking - in addition to the normal pile of clothes (always with a pair of shoes…weird) on my side of the bed, and nicely folded pairs of worn pants, wire hangers, and pajama bottoms on Aaron’s side;
- the sofa in our bedroom is covered in kids clothes that I should sort to put away for storage in the myriad trash/Target bags that currently reside on the floor in the kids’ closets;
- and the list goes on.
Basically? The entire house is driving me crazy.
So. I’ve decided that we are going to have a Pseudo Move.
Over the next couple of months I will reorder each room in the house so that it feels as though we’ve just moved in.
Everything will be in Its Place:
- Those “dirty” items sucking up the space in the basement will be hauled off by the Salvation Army.
- The food and appliances will not mingle when in storage.
- I will no longer trip over the same pair of shoes laying in the middle of the bedroom floor.
- The baking equipment and the cutting boards will live in harmony and there will be no Race To the Floor competition between Angel Food Cake Pan and Wire Cooling Rack when I open the cabinet.
- And finally, the bowls in the cupboard will always be nested.
The house will be “CLEAN.”
Certainly this will take some time and effort and I’ll have to have Aaron watch the kids, which means it happens on the weekends, which means it will kind of suck. But it will be worth it. Order will be restored and I don’t have to pack a million boxes (tissue could come in handy here, though) load a U-Haul, unload a U-Haul and unpack a million boxes (saving the tissue, of course).
And the next best part about the Pseudo Move? Once we’re “moved in,” we get to plan, prioritize and execute all of the projects we want to do when we’ve moved in the “new” house.
- Poorly Planned Bathroom With Carpeting, meet Tiled Floor.
- Faux Finished Kitchen, meet Yellow Paint.
- Muddy, Disgusting Back Yard, meet Sod.
- And again, the list goes on.
So I guess this is just a smidge of what will be keeping me busy over the next few months (years) or so. (In addition to providing my children with quality mom-kid experiences and consistent attention and discipline, of course.)
You have any plans?
