If I eliminated every post that details my attempt to "organize / clean /pare down / and eliminate clutter" in my home, it might just sweep.this Blog under a rug!. Lucky for me, I don't plan to do that!
I have been cleaning and rearranging in my typical dump and regret style! I learned that as a child. Oh, I can so remember my poor mama's face when she sent me to clean my room! She would check in and find such chaos! SO UNLIKE HER! She could sweep into a place and have it company ready in 15 minutes. She employed the "Basket trick." Boom! She might just have owned a wooden, peach laundry basket with a pretty liner just used for that process. Every item out of place was whooshed into the basket. Then a red- handled father duster flicked the dust about and gone. Her beloved cannister Electrolux gobbled up the floors; et Voilá! The room was ready, and she was making a pot of coffee. She grabbed out that basket after the company went home and put every item away in its proper home.
Alas! I don't work that way! Never did... First, any stash thus relegated to such basket is likely STILL in said basket! I might have learned a lesson or two when, years ago, I had to skulk down the basement and paw through a blanket full of superfluous clutter I had toted down there Santa Claus bag fashion. It was filled with stuff, and a group of women were meeting in my house. One of those
dear ♥ ladies had the nerve to crave sugar in her coffee! Oh, sure! My Tupperware sugar cannister was deep in my furnace area... busted! I won't even go into how often I have repurchased something only to find it finally months or years later in such a basket trip- type purgatory....
Nope. No feather duster for me either. I bought a pretty pricey number from Flylady and came down to ? Help? My mom and dad clean for company. I breezed in with it and a steam mop. First, the steam mop did something truly bad to the years of linoleum wax... suddenly the floors were covered with horrid, white, blah/ bleachy-looking spots. My dad looked at me over his glasses and invited me to take that thing back to my car. I then whipped our my fancy feather duster... and snagged a red Polish crystal water glass with the second whisk. Crash /shatter / gasp! I looked across the room to four reproachful eyes. Daddy just softly said, "Go home." So.... I think I did!
So... my current quest involves creating nooks. I now have A COOKBOOK NOOK in my kitchen. The little bookcase was a gift in the forties, handmade by my dad for his future in-laws... I love to stack! I'm liking how it turned out!
Yep! Now on to my Studio currently in the omygosh! Phase... I hope to make nooks for Devotions, handwork, and crafting...
Yesterday would have been my parents' 71st wedding anniversary. I finally put something in the freezer for the first snow... strawberries from Aldi... a far cry from home grown peas! But... it will do
Have a great weekend!
3 comments:
Did you draw this sketch? I love it!! Your home always looks so lovely, I would never know you had these clutter problems!
The only way I can clean and organize is to dump the entire room in a pile and sort through it. In my younger days I would take a day off work, put the kids on the bus and whirlwind through most of it before they got home. But there were always those last remaining piles.
This system has taken a serious hit after retirement. My husband is here 24/7 and I can't clean with someone watching me. At this point the best I can do is wait him out, he goes to bed and I see how much I can do before I fall asleep on my feet. This means that about 50% remains in the pile. And I have to furiously stack it all on high surfaces so the grandbabies can't get into it. Perhaps you can picture the tipping piles surrounding me.
I laughed so hard at your description of cleaning your folks' house and your dad's reaction. Haaahaha! Great story. Those strawberries! Yes please. And nooks are about the best thing ever. xoxo
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