Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
It’s time. This house has been ransacked too many times lately. Missing birth certificate. Tax documents. OS X Tiger upgrade disk. Applecare package that hasn’t even been *shipped* yet, fer kee-reist. It’s outta control here.
Once upon a time, I was not terribly bad at keeping house and organizing. I kept track of bank accounts right down to the penny and I had a cleaning routine. It wasn’t the best but I at least cleaned up the big chunks that were front and center, if not the nooks and crannies. And I usually got to the nooks and crannies eventually.
If I had to pinpoint a time when it all started to go south, it was probably early summer 1998. It was late afternoon and the tornado sirens were blowing. The skies were not quite dark green but it was pretty ugly looking out there. There didn’t seem to be much of a panic outside in the neighborhood. Hans and the GG were painstakingly photographing two moths mating in a large crack of Hans’s sidewalk. Some workers over at Luke’s were chipping up a tree with some noisy mechanical contraption. Inside the Carbeck Landfill panic was a bit more evident as the Landfill Urchins were in the process of flinging every single stuffed aminal they owned down the basement stairs.
I can’t even describe the next seven years of working for a non-profit and doing volunteer work for other organizations and then (yikes) going back to school. Things got worse and worse. And then, in June 2005, things took a disastrous turn and the suitcase years began. Bro’, if you can see this over there on the other side, it’s NOT your fault and I love you. But that’s when it seemed like I started living out of a crappy old LL Bean duffel bag and various backpacks and YAG tote bags. I never could quite get unpacked. Things got progressively worse around here. I decided I hated vacuum cleaners. And I started to lose things. Important things.
I haven’t lost the stuffed aminals. They are *still* at the bottom of the stairs. That is, they are not just piled in a heap down there. They have all been put into garbage bags and placed on top of the ancient set of cabinets down there. But I am done. I am going to get this place back in order if it kills me. I am not going to do it quickly. No landfill would accept the amount of crap that I will have to get rid of. It’ll take time. I’m going to continue to do the small things I already do every day (like dishes and laundry and cleaning the blue toilet) and maybe a few small extra projects a day. I am not going to go backwards!
Two of the things I want to make inroads on this week are keys and electrisikal crap:
- I want to have a house key attached to every single blasted last car key. That is all, house key and car key. There will be two sets of *other* keys. Houghton Lake, Gitchee Gumee, Commander’s house, and whatever else. All keys will be kept IN THE BASKET at all times!!!!!
- Next. All lucky-shucky or electronical related cords and cables and other unspecifiable lucky-shucky-looking items will be collected in a cardboard box for labeling.
Either that is all or I have run out of steam. Any household organizational tips are appreciated! Love y’all and g’night.
January 22nd, 2007 at 10:04 pm
The only “organizational” tip I’ll provide is “Stick To It!!”
That’s about the only way I’m doing it here!! A coherent segment at a time.
So…howcum my back room looks purty darn decent, and my so-called Home Office is still a disaster?? (except for the fact that I only step foot into the HO to stuff another 2006 Tax Document into the 2006 Tax Folder…;-) )
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:29 am
two tips that we discussed before:
1) don’t throw sand and 2) oh wait, wrong topic.
I’m going to be moving sometime in the near-ish future so I’m also in need of slimming down big time. can I interest you in the papa-san chair you gave me ages ago? I replaced the pillow!
January 25th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
If you get some really good tips, share them with all of us!! No matter how often I try more stuff seems to accumulate on table tops, on the floor, stuffed onto shelves, etc. UCK!