Sequential Saturday
Do you have one? A place where you stash your giant roasting pan, a folder full of papers from third grade and the playpen, even though you only use it for visitors and loan it out at Christmas to that lady for her grandchild? Do you keep slides from thirty years ago and clay handprints from your kids' kindergarten class? And craft books for that day you imagine will come when you wake up bright and early with a determination to refinish and decoupage furniture? Do you run across two birdhouses from a couple of summers ago waiting for paint and rolls of Christmas wrapping paper lolling around with a music stand from those months when your son took up the flute?
Or is it just me?
We have no garage, which is fine, I suppose, considering the garage was converted into a large room which now serves as a bedroom for the twins. (We moved into this three-bedroom house with three kids, thinking we weren't having any more.) The room is large enough for a computer desk and computer which the kids use for school and play, a piano, a second desk, and a huge shelving unit which houses the Nintendo and random boy belongings. Both the laundry room and the storage room branch off from the boys' room, so their space is almost a common area in our house, not a private spot.
It was not my goal, as such, to clean out the storage room today, but when I peered into the future, I hoped I might get to it eventually. After all, every time I walk into that room to find a hammer or to stash a pile of stuff, I'd cringe. Last week, I cleaned up the upstairs rooms and once a week or so, I return the boys' room to a habitable state, but the storage room fits into the category, "Out of Sight: Out of Mind." And it drives me out of my mind when I flick on the lightswitch and stub my toe on an old printer the boys carted home from somewhere.
The boys had to go to a writing workshop today (9 a.m. to 2 p.m.!) and my husband went to a brunch and my 7-year old went to his buddy's house, so my daughter and I were home alone. I worked and she appeared from time to time to beg me for a toy or a snack. I uncovered a few forgotten toys and she uncovered a bin full of Play-Doh toys (which she emptied in the family room, which is typical, isn't it--I'm cleaning up one mess while a child makes an equal and opposite mess in another room).
The storage room clean-up was actually not the destination on my sequential chore road. My goal was beyond the storage room clean-up, but first, I had to clean up the kitchen. Then I had to get the laundry underway. Then I had to sweep and clean my boys' room. Then, finally, I could tidy up the storage room. And when the storage room was clean, I could look for my photographs from the years 2002, 2003 and 2004. For you see, on Friday night, I'll be heading to the ocean for a Girls Scrapbooking Weekend. Six of us (I think) will be spending Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at the beach. I intend to get my scrapbooks up to date. I had been keeping up until my daughter was born and since then, my pictures sit abandoned in their envelopes rather than festively displayed in scrapbooks.
The only thing standing between me and a weekend of bliss and acid-free, lignin-free scrapbooking paper (and stickers!) is the upcoming week in which no crisis will be permitted to occur and no emergencies will be allowed to require the presence of my husband, because next weekend, he will be me, minus the compulsion to clean, and I will be me, minus four kids and a husband.
Or is it just me?
We have no garage, which is fine, I suppose, considering the garage was converted into a large room which now serves as a bedroom for the twins. (We moved into this three-bedroom house with three kids, thinking we weren't having any more.) The room is large enough for a computer desk and computer which the kids use for school and play, a piano, a second desk, and a huge shelving unit which houses the Nintendo and random boy belongings. Both the laundry room and the storage room branch off from the boys' room, so their space is almost a common area in our house, not a private spot.
It was not my goal, as such, to clean out the storage room today, but when I peered into the future, I hoped I might get to it eventually. After all, every time I walk into that room to find a hammer or to stash a pile of stuff, I'd cringe. Last week, I cleaned up the upstairs rooms and once a week or so, I return the boys' room to a habitable state, but the storage room fits into the category, "Out of Sight: Out of Mind." And it drives me out of my mind when I flick on the lightswitch and stub my toe on an old printer the boys carted home from somewhere.
The boys had to go to a writing workshop today (9 a.m. to 2 p.m.!) and my husband went to a brunch and my 7-year old went to his buddy's house, so my daughter and I were home alone. I worked and she appeared from time to time to beg me for a toy or a snack. I uncovered a few forgotten toys and she uncovered a bin full of Play-Doh toys (which she emptied in the family room, which is typical, isn't it--I'm cleaning up one mess while a child makes an equal and opposite mess in another room).
The storage room clean-up was actually not the destination on my sequential chore road. My goal was beyond the storage room clean-up, but first, I had to clean up the kitchen. Then I had to get the laundry underway. Then I had to sweep and clean my boys' room. Then, finally, I could tidy up the storage room. And when the storage room was clean, I could look for my photographs from the years 2002, 2003 and 2004. For you see, on Friday night, I'll be heading to the ocean for a Girls Scrapbooking Weekend. Six of us (I think) will be spending Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at the beach. I intend to get my scrapbooks up to date. I had been keeping up until my daughter was born and since then, my pictures sit abandoned in their envelopes rather than festively displayed in scrapbooks.
The only thing standing between me and a weekend of bliss and acid-free, lignin-free scrapbooking paper (and stickers!) is the upcoming week in which no crisis will be permitted to occur and no emergencies will be allowed to require the presence of my husband, because next weekend, he will be me, minus the compulsion to clean, and I will be me, minus four kids and a husband.
posted by Melodee at Saturday, February 11, 2006
13 Comments:
I love purging so much. It is my favorite thing.
Not so much the scrapbooking, but enjoy.
I've got crap like that everywhere, too. Sometimes I'm amazed by what I find, and wonder why I saved it in the first place. Your scrapbooking vacation sounds wonderful!!
How envious I am of your scrapbooking weekend. I wish I knew how to scrapbook, and the weekend doing it sounds like you will get so much done, not to mention all the female bonding you can do in the process! Hey, I have a great idea...we can bond while we clean my attic someday!!!
It's not just you, I'm often amazed at what I save. and have fun this weekend, I would love to do that!! and I'm #99958.
100005
"next weekend, he will be me, minus the compulsion to clean"
WHY is it always minus the compulsion to clean? It's the same here. And I'm just asking...why??
We have a storage room like that. We call it "Away," becaue that is whenever we are looking for things we say, "I put it away."
I have a scrapbook for my oldest son, right on up to age 6 months.
Although, it's missing some pictures that he needed for the bulletin board at school once.
I had wto children after him, all grown up now.
That's why I have a blog for my grandson.
Luucckkyyyyyy! (said in her best imitation of Napolean Dynamite).
~K!
My paperwork is temporarily under control, for the first time in 2.5 years, which included two moves. I cannot identify with you one bit. Ha.
Except I spent a bunch of money 9.5 years ago on a bag of Creative Memories stuff that's going unused, and I don't even have beach to have a weekend at.
Funny, my entire house is that "away" spot.
Unfortunately, my whole house is our "Storage room" I feel like. Have funn scrapbooking!
Mel wrote: "...which is typical, isn't it--I'm cleaning up one mess while a child makes an equal and opposite mess in another room)."
Ah, yes. This would be Mrs. Newton's little known First Law of Thermodynamics.... "For every clean-up operation, there is an equal and opposite mess occuring elsewhere."
Mrs. Newton's Second Law states that the kitchen is in an constant state of entropy.
Smart gal, that Mrs. Newton. Rumor has it that the apple that hit her hubby on the head was actually thrown by her -- and it wasn't to teach him a lesson about gravity, I can assure you.
~C~
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