Home improvement prompts paper clean-up
I want to be organized, I really do.
But it hasn’t happened yet.
This was brought home to me yet again in recent days, when I
cleaned out what I thought was the most organized place in the
house, only to realize it wasn’t.
Home improvement prompts paper clean-up
I want to be organized, I really do.
But it hasn’t happened yet.
This was brought home to me yet again in recent days, when I cleaned out what I thought was the most organized place in the house, only to realize it wasn’t.
I just got new vinyl flooring in my kitchen and family room, and so everything had to be moved out. Not only moved out, but moved out for several days, so that the floor could properly cure.
And of course, like all home improvement projects, it took twice as long as it was supposed to. Well, two days, rather than one.
Actually as home improvement projects go, this was not bad. When my kitchen was redone a few years ago, I was washing dishes in the bathtub for weeks.
So the floor should not have been so bad. It just meant utter chaos for a few days.
It’s very disorienting to have everything out of a room and in places where it’s not supposed to be. In addition to making other living spaces a little, shall we say, tight.
For two days, we lived with the stove and refrigerator in the living room, along with the dining room table, chairs, and other assorted stuff. Yet another room was filled up with incidental – well – junk.
I am beginning to realize that I just have too much stuff.
Then there was another delay in this room while I painted the ceiling (way overdue) and the baseboards and the crown molding. (How do so many marks get on the ceiling? I guess it goes to show that when you have kids, stuff happens.)
At any rate, it’s finally all done, somehow.
So now I am slowly beginning to put the family room back together, and have already made some momentous decisions. I’ve filled up several boxes with old videotapes, books, placemats and such, which will go off to Goodwill or another worthy charity. I’ve removed some bins and some baskets. I’ve even thrown away old dog toys.
I also made a huge decision – not to bring a really ugly credenza back into the room – and am pleasantly surprised at how that one little change has made it a nicer, friendlier, more open space.
Change is difficult, but necessary.
So much for the big things. Now on to the little things.
Clearing out this room made me realize that I have years worth of paper that needs to be put somewhere, not just stored in various bins and baskets. I am now in the process of sifting through it. And I am not a good sifter.
Old bills. Receipts. Kids’ report cards. Newspapers (naturally). All of it seems important.
I have bags, boxes, folders, filing cabinets full of papers which also seem just as important as all those papers that have not yet been filed.
It’s just way, way too much.
I’m always terrified of throwing something out (or recycling it) and then finding out that it was incredibly necessary. So I agonize over each page, each sheet, each scrap.
And it takes me a long, long time to do this.
So for the moment, the room looks great. But there are little drifts and big drifts of paper lurking in another room, waiting for me to do something – anything – with them.
Oh, the horror.
