Friday, April 12, 2013
The continual journey of "stuff" around my home
Does anybody else feel that as they clean one specified area that was cluttered, most of the stuff is moved to other areas that are also cluttered, waiting to be organized? I've been feeling like I'm just moving stuff around, until it will all be in that one last spot that's overwhelmingly stacked high with miscellaneous things that just seems too daunting to even try to attempt to clean. Anyone else get that feeling? On that note, who wants free stuff?!?! I have bibs, tons of bibs that are going to goodwill soon, and a maroon tablecloth that's oblong in shape 52" x 70". Yours if you'd use them!
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I have to chuckle because every time Rich cleans, it usually means a ton of stuff has been put into some sort of receptacle (usually a box nearby), and I find it in the garage later. As I go through it, I start finding things I've been missing...that missing sock, dishtowels, toys. Our garage has plenty of boxes like that. I do my best when I clean to make sure everything ends up in its proper place, which is probably why things take me so long to clean, because, often, I'm not sure what that place is, and that means I need to go clean out something else so I can create The Proper Place for that one thing, then go hunt for the Other Things that now have A Proper Place...
ReplyDeleteYou see the vicious cycle, right?
Yes, yes, yes!!! My husband and I came up with an acronym in our first apartment (which was 178 sq ft!) for a similar phenomenon. (For those of you who don't keep track of numbers well, that's one bedroom, a bathroom-sized kitchen, and a closet-sized bathroom. That's it.) We had clutter issues for sure. (And code-violating issues, but that was our landlord's domain. =S)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, we came up with C.S.T. which stands for "Continuous Surface Transfer." This refers to the problem of moving the pile of homework off the kitchen counter so as to chop up some produce, but having nowhere better to put it than on top of the laptop. Come time to work on the computer, it has to go, but where? The counter is still messy. Hmm. How about the bed. Such a nice, horizontal surface! And then at bedtime, oh, well, the floor is just as good as anything.
Coming from such a past, you can see why I am now quite the stickler about clutter. Of course, it doesn't mean that we don't still run into the same problem now and again. The key for me is just taking the 2 minutes to A) find a home for the item B) clear it off if necessary and C) put it there. (Confession, sometimes it does take 2 hours because I actually enjoy reorganizing closets. Sometimes to the detriment of more crucial jobs, like making dinner. :S)
Now that we're in a house of normal person to space proportions, I do find things converging on that "one last spot that overwhelmingly stacked high..." oh, yes. we all have one. mine's the library desk, and closet, and bookshelves, and desk, and floor. okay, the whole library. and the bathroom closet. never mind. it hasn't converged. :)
Anyway, good luck Emily!
PS Oh, the hunt for The Proper Place. and The Other Things. I get it Z, I really get it. :)
Love it. "A place for everything and everything in it's place" is the motto (even blog tittle I think) of my mom and sister-in-law. I'm no where near there. Often things have a place, but that's downstairs, and I'm lazy or busy and just start to build up a "take downstairs and put away" pile. Fun fun piles.
ReplyDeleteOh but Justin found our marriage certificate this week by going through boxes of old BYU notes. It's nice to see that again, five years later.
I totally have that problem. I will go through and sort the papers in the massive stack occasionally and then i am left with several stacks of papers to put away somewhere and the eventually just end up in a tall stack again. Ugh. I super hate that they are usually on our breakfast bar since our office only just got a large filing cabinet. I am soooo tired of clutter. Its my achilles for sure.
ReplyDeleteI think I read in some organizing book that you just have to make time each day to clean those "hot spots." We all have them and if we regularly clean them off then they won't build up as much. Easier said than done because I agree that sometimes there isn't a place set up yet for something. For me finding a place to put the mail was a big deal and I (rather David) no longer find mail all over the house.
ReplyDelete