The purge urge

I don't think I am a packrat. Or I tell myself I am not.

My grandmother, she is a packrat.

My mom is not.

I think I fall somewhere in between the two. I keep a big plastic bin in each of the kids' closet and I put special things in there. Their class pictures, copies of their school pictures, milestone momentos (first name printed for the first time, first shoes, going home outfits...). I toss things in on a not terribly regular basis.

The other day my husband commented that we needed more book shelves. We kind of do. But his idea is to LINE the office.

Umm what? So that all our creased back, mass market books are on exhibit to everyone?

I like having SOME books out. I have a good sized stack that is unread, I want those out. We have a few hardbacks that are nice to display. I have a few that mean something to me (like Hans Blix's book with a nice sentiment to me and his autograph in the front). My favorite books are up there and so are AB's.

But every single book I have ever read? Please don't make me put them out. I could use more bookshelfs for stuff... not books. Not to mention that I want to impart some sense of style into our home and lining one wall with cheap bookshelfs is not my way to achieve that. Sorry honey.

We have been hauling boxes from storage and unpacking them.

You might guess that a recent load was boxes upon boxes of books. I actually started making a stack of books to get rid of through either exchange at the used book store or donating to Goodwill.

It hasn't stopped there.

I wore a pair of shoes to work the other day that I have owned for about a year. They are cute, but kill my feet. I avoid wearing them because they hurt. This has prompted me to put a box in my closet and to start putting stuff in the box for Goodwill.

AB came home the other day with tales of a coworkers highly successful garage sale. That might work too.

The next goal is to put a box in every room of the house, particularly as I unpack boxes. Stuff that doesn't work, we don't like, doesn't have a function? Goes in the box. Those lamps with no lampshades? In the box. Ancient camera equipment? Box. Books that were bad the first time around? See that box over there?

Then the boxes, once full. (Or mostly full.) They will go away in search of new homes.

This month's goals

Easy peasy.

My wonderful husband suggested that we address the yards for the month of April goal. I took him up on that. Afterall my mom and stepdad arrive in a couple days and we like to spend time in the backyard while they are here. Not to mention that it was all stuff that just really needed to be done anyways.

My role in all this has been to clean out the front garden beds and keep the kids inside when necessary. Yep. There's my month's goal. Oh and to keep bugging AB about talking to the guy he works with who latex seals concrete as a side job.

Had the weather been warmer I would have done more, but it has been prohibitavely cool here. Seriously it was snowing when I walked to my car at lunchtime. So no new annuals or veggie plants for me yet.

One of the first things I do when I have moved someplace new is inquire as to when the planting date is. In Colorado it was Mother's Day. In Reno it was when the snow melted off of Slide Mountain (end of April). Here I was told it was tax day.

Being a Colorado girl and understanding the importance of these dates and the number of freak snow storms that tend to happen I always adhere strongly to these dates. Though in recent years I have had to restrain myself.

"Yes, I know honey it is 75F, but it might freeze."

My restraint... yeah, that's what we will call it... restraint... paid off. (Restraint, laziness... whatever.)

My annuals and veggies - providing we see some heat here soon, will go in the first weekend in May.

Oh and you might wonder about the corner of the yard that makes me grimace, right? I mentioned that before.

Well AB was fishing wood out of back there to start cleaning it up (aka build a work table for the garage) when he found a nest of quail eggs and quail expectant parents. He claims that we cannot disturb the nesting quail to clean up the... umm... looking for a nice word to use... stuff back there.

Ok, well I will buy that. One corner of my yard will remain a disaster area because of the endangered species act.

There haven't been any jokes at all about quail egg omelets.

Really... baby quail will be good... they are the cutest little hooters running around on their tiny legs.

Let's hope they are faster than Belgian Sheepdogs.

The endless, endless clutter

I took the plunge earlier this week.

I let our housecleaner go. (Ok, really, AB let her go as I am a wuss... but it was my telling him to do so.) She was "fine" and cleaned our house every other week for the last three years. She routinely needed reminders to do things like move the kitchen appliances and clean under them, wipe the window sills, things like that. My biggest problem with her was her hit or miss nature. One week was great, the next notsomuch. And she had plenty of personal issues that she liked to talk about (A LOT) and that I suspect made her distracted with her work regularly. Yes, if I had a 20 year old son who was schizophrenic I would probably have a hard time focusing too. But I was paying her to do a job... it was a business transaction after all and my satisfaction was hit or miss.

I didn't just let her go and decide I was going to do it myself. I am not crazy! Instead I climbed aboard a service that my closest female friends in the area have glommed onto. For only $30 more a month, I am signed up to start getting weekly cleaning service.

I am so thrilled about this because what I REALLY need done all.the.time is my floors. My floors are always a mess. Around my table is a disaster since Skadi has started eating solids and Leif can't always locate his mouth.

And how much stuff can a family of four track into the living room? I can give you a good approximate since I am constantly prying the stuff out of Skadi's mouth. Incredible oral child, she is.

So I am thrilled about this new path to a clean house.

Here is the issue though... picking up the house for the cleaner.

We could deal with the every other week scramble the night before to get the clutter picked up. But now, the scramble is going to be a weekly occurence.

I am not the only one worrying about it, AB has voiced concerns about it many times. I keep telling him that if we do it weekly, it won't get nearly so bad as it does after two weeks. In theory, we should spend far less time each week.

Right?

Ok, so I might just be expelling steam. I don't know this.

How do you deal in your house with the clutter? The things left behind day in and day out by your kids, the things that get dropped when everyone walks in the door, the toys the cat has sent sailing into neighboring rooms?

It is the common area (kitchen, dining room and living room) that get bad. Leif's room is never that bad and he helps pick up in there. We are considering introducing chores and have started this informally with the introduction of a Dust Buster... it is Leif's job to clean around the cat box with the Dust Buster... a job he does with gusto, precision and pride.

In some attempt to try something new, this weekend I am buying four new laundry baskets. One for each of the main areas of the house aimed to collect things. Not laundry, things. Then the baskets can be carried around and stuff returned to where it goes. Or in a pinch, stuff stuck in there and then set up off the floor (on the couch?) so the cleaner can get what she needs done, done.

Believe it or not, this is mostly AB's idea and one he swears he brought up months ago. Of course then I took it as, "yes we need more laundry baskets for the dirty laundry!" And I bought baskets, for laundry.

Anyone have any wonderful solutions?