Saturday, June 12, 2010

HOW MUCH CLUTTER SHOULD A PERSON STAND?

For years I have been chucking papers in boxes next to the computer. Things like stories that had been work shopped and need to be fixed. Copies of church talks I'd run off and fully intended to read--I fully intended to study them, actually--and have great life-changing epiphanies. There were even grocery ads in there. Recipes. Post-it notes. Photos. Pictures I wanted to watercolor--an especially nice one of Michael's. All kinds of stuff was there. You name it, it was probably there.

Three weeks ago Phil took all these boxes upstairs and said, "Here!" His unspoken message was, "Get rid of this junk or I will be insane along with you." Two insane people are too much for one house so I started. and then I restarted. Then I became overwhelmed and I ran away. Then I came back because I am fond of sleeping on a bed instead of the lawn swings. And then I got down to business. And now the living room looks like this. That doesn't look too bad unless you live here. Even when I have only one working eye--you'd think I could only see half of it--but no, even a one eyed person can tell this is really bad. I am still overwhelmed.

The mess wasn't bad enough so...I decided to do something about pee-pee doggies odor. I scattered three cups of baking soda on the floors. Three cups in the family room and three cups in the living room. Have you ever scattered three cups of baking soda in a room? It goes everywhere. Every surface is covered, even though I was careful. If people had shoes out--coughElizabethandmecough--their shoes got covered. It looks like no one has dusted in three years and I make a point of dusting every year or so, honest I do.

So, tonight I made the youngest shoe-offender vacuum and now I am ignoring the piles in the living room and I am going to check things with the black light and use some kind of miracle liquid that guarantees to work on stains and odors. There are no stains, because years ago we picked a carpet color that looks like dirt. Or maybe it looked like something else way back when and now it looks like dirt. But...there are odors. And I intend to sleuth them out.

And I should clean up this clutter too but I just can't do it yet. It shows me that people love me and brought me cards and goodies on my birthday. Some even sang to me. I think this is nice clutter.
I have only two thank-you notes written.

Humm...maybe I should write thank you notes and leave the black light business until later. What do you think? Cleaning or thank you notes?

9 comments:

Unknown said...

I cleaned my little office space today. That means moving the crap from here and putting it over there. Within a couple of days it will be back over here.

The Peterson Family said...

Too funny, I also got a b-day gift in that green swirly, dotty, stripy bag, too!
And really, your mess isn't too bad - I know you can sort through it. I have complete empathy for you though. At the moment I feel like I'm living in an episode of Hoarders: Buried Alive. Not so much papers everywhere as EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE! I'm slowly getting it put away. And I'm sure it will all be done just in time to pack it all up again. Oh well.

tearese said...

you and your husband are the oposite of myself and my husband. He has so much stuff all over the place, and I don't dare throw it away because it might be important, but it drives me nuts! The first few months of our marriage I spent every free minute going through his boxes of stuff and organizing papers and cards into binders and throwing away junk. Now there is just too much and I don't even try.
I think, if I was single, I would enjoy living in some kind of minimalistic feng shui (Sp?) apartment, with just a bed and some wall hangings.
Yeah, write the notes or it won't get done.

Chloe m said...

I grew up with stacks of papers surrounding me. My mom was a clutter lady but she was never bothered at all by it. I swore I would never be like that. But alas, I am turning into her!

I like this blog of yours. I will be back to visit. We have somethings in common, I think.

Colette Amelia said...

sounds perfectly sane and also perfectly like a good idea to be keeping all that stuff! But then again maybe what you could do if you have to get rid of it but can't bare to have it gone forever is take a photo of the stuff...Michael just scanned my cheque for .06 yup six cents...for posterity! Don't know yet if I will cash it...might wait until we run out of beans.

oh guess what the word verification was...turdo!

Mental P Mama said...

Ugh. I need to go up to my office and do the very same thing. I think there are unsent Christmas cards up there....And, get some Nature's Miracle. It is wonderful!

Laura ~Peach~ said...

refuses to discuss clutter... LOL
Your "mess" is NO WHERE as deep as mine... the "computer corner" is no mans land and people who enter it are VERY afraid they might not get back out.
i like the b day clutter I still have christmas clutter on my entertainment center...

Hillary said...

I'm trying to be like Jesus today so I won't say anything about the Rat Dog and what I would do to it. But as for you, I would help you clean, but I know you don't like my ideas of where to put all that stuff. I got LOTS of your genes (some I love and some, not so much) but the paper clutter one seemed to skip me.

I was talking to Em yesterday, she was doing something fun and amazing with her kids. I said "you are the best funnest mom there is" and she said "well, your house is clean and organized" I think she thinks it was a compliment. HUMMMPH

Astromom said...

What nice organized piles, I could live with that, but I have a confession I have at least six boxes worth (or maybe more like 15) of stuff to sort through to even get to the organized pile stage, so your doing great and no kids to throw the organized piles all over the room, you can work around them for awhile.