Everyone has that one room in their house where they dump their junk. At least that's what others tell me so I don't feel so bad about mine. I am not the neatest person on the block. I have aspirations to be such a person! My Mom, who is one of the most amazing people I know, is a Super Mega Ultra Organized Neat Person and I inherited none of those skills.
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| That's my wonderful Mom!! She's the best Mom and best friend a girl could ever hope for. I hope I'm half the Mom she is to Sidney. I love her!! |
Growing up I was always in trouble for my piles, and my messes. In college I was messy without negative consequences. When I got married, our messes merged!! Nathan prefers things to be neat and tidy, but doesn't stress over clutter. This enables my problem which he now refers to as hoarding. Eeeek!! Have you seen that show? I'm no where near that bad, but because he already thinks so...that's a problem. My mess followed me to my work environment where I was known for having a messy closet and could never find anything. My car has always been cluttered with things that should not live there. Nathan surprised me with a new car in March of 2011. I was quite diligent on keeping it cleaned out and neat for the first six months. Now with two kids it's back to old habits for me. My mess is mostly clutter. It's clean clutter thanks to my wonderful house keeper Melinda who blesses my house every two weeks, but there's still quite a bit of clutter that has accumulated in our lives.
My previous post mentioned me being inspired to make changes. Being this clutter bug/hoarder (if you will) is one of those things I want to change. How can I ask Sid to keep her things neat, tidy, and organized when she can peer into my closet, car, or office and see this huge mess that I can't manage? Not fair I tell you. I need to get my act together and lead by example.
I am starting in the office. Since I've been training so much on the treadmill it has really opened my eyes to the madness of the piles, papers, junk, and random stuff that has grown here. The clutter used to be more spread out before the kids were born because it hid in their rooms which used to be "guest" rooms. Fancy name for a clutter room. Now all this stuff has migrated downstairs since the two kiddos needed a place to stay after their birth. Who knew they would want their own space?
I'm no where near done, but I have started on the Great Purging of 2012. No, not a bulimic purging. Just getting down to the business of separating, shredding, and acting like a grown up finally in the old age of being 32. I'm taking pictures to document progress and to hold me accountable to finishing it. I'm working on my pet project during nap times and after bed times some nights, like tonight (whoowhoo hard core partying on a Saturday!! Watch out now!)
Enjoy the pics. Please don't judge too harshly. I need all the encouragement I can get. I don't know why this type of thing is so hard for me to manage. It's been a life long challenge that I need to get under control and keep up with daily instead of every five to ten years.
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| This is looking into the office. This is not the office at it's messiest point. I have no picture of that...only the image forever burned into my brain and probably Sid's too. |
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| I've begun to separate into piles and remove some items. This room has such potential!! |
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| My view from the treadmill. I couldn't run away from the mess so I had to fix it. Evan's hand is in the shot because he's helping me capture the room's essence. That's also his mat where he likes to cheer me on while I run my short runs. |
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| These are my banker's boxes that an organizer recommended I start with to kill the clutter beast. Yes, I paid someone to tell me how to do this job because I wasn't listening to my Mom when she told me the same thing for free a million times over. The boxes do have different themes even if you can't tell from the photo. |
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| Messy! Messy!! I've had too many things started in here and not finished. |
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| I've been collecting all the frames and pictures that drift around our house and they are coming to live on this table that I plan to make into a scrapbooking table. There's now a place for the pictures to land instead of living in boxes or the floor. |
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| Do you see the shelf? I don't love it at all. It was from the previous owner. It must die! |
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| Nathan gave me permission to use his drill. I had been banned from the drill since the summer of 2003 when I tried to install curtains by myself in the old house. Used a stud finder to find the stud to drill the curtain rod holder things into. Turns out the beep that I thought meant, "Yea, you found a stud!" really meant, "Whoa, that's the metal window frame." Who knew a drill bit could smoke like that?? Check out that long screw! |
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| Adios shelf in the room! And there was no drill smoking and I still have all 10 fingers! |
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| Removed shelf. Maybe I am a hoarder because I'm keeping it to rehang in our underneath storage area to hang a garment bag with clothes we are saving (Letterman jackets, costumes, Sidney's baptism outfit). No, it's non rehung up yet. Still sitting in same spot! |
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| Evan supervising my work! |
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| Can you find Sidney?? Her non-nap ended early so she came to help too. Her job was to find the VHS tapes and make a pile. She was pumped to help out. |
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| VHS pile. "What's a VHS, Mommy?" Sidney asked. Hmmmm... I don't know if we even still have a VHS player. Maybe I'll find one down here. |
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| Can you see the shredder between the desk and the trash bag? I was finally ready to shred a few days ago and the blasted thing died on me after two sheets of paper. I now have a fancy mega cross cutting shredder that does 14 sheets at a time that rocks. I shredded for 45 minutes tonight. Need to take more pics!!! |
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| That corner looks better!!! |
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| Currently the big pictures are living on the couch. Nathan's not too pleased, but they have to be removed from the room to make room for all my fantastic organizing!! |
So that's where we are. I have done more work and made more progress since these pictures were taken. I will have to take some more pics after I get Nathan to help me move some furniture around tomorrow. I have emptied three full recycling bags and one huge trash bag. That's a good dent, but I must keep pressing forward because after the office comes the underneath storage area. I am scared!!!!
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