Day 10

Today, I read Pegi's paper "Our Home: Chaos Verses Perfection." Wow! Did this one hit a nerve! During our first session, Pegi asked me how orderly my house was. I sort of downplayed my feelings about the state of my home. For the past 5 years, I have had a love-hate relationship with my house. Parts of my house are clean and fairly orderly while other areas are a disaster. When I 'analyze' the areas that make me nuts, I find that I have allowed others to control these areas. Fortunately, I can close these rooms off from the rest of the house – but they still do exist – and I know they are there, begging for attention. Sometimes, the 'bad' parts make me want to walk out the front door and go somewhere else, somewhere orderly. Over the past year, I have become increasingly conscious of how scattered I feel when the house is out of sorts.

The Good

Our bedroom and bathroom are clean and pretty much in order. Our closets and dressers are organized. A couple of years ago, we stripped off the outdated wall covering in the bedroom and bathroom. The bedroom never got painted because the walls require some repair and a lot of prep. Last week, Quinn said he would hire a painter and have the bedroom painted in the next few weeks. In the master bathroom we did a mini makeover; walls painted, new vanity & faucet, new towel bars, floor, and lighting.

The family living spaces – living room, foyer, dining room, main bathroom, and laundry area are in order – and usually are. If we didn't have our scrappy little terrier dragging stuff in from the garden, the living room would be perfect all the time! I feel that the balance of personal items, furniture, and open space are right for us. We have a huge, walk-in pantry that I go through every year to clean out expired food and things that I know we aren't going to use. The pantry could use a little straightening though – about 30 minutes tops.

The kitchen is in fairly good order. The cupboards aren't overflowing, dishes are neatly stacked. We usually put the dishes in the dishwasher as soon as we are finished eating. Once the dishwasher is through its cycle, the clean dishes are put away. The few items throughout the day that require hand washing are put in the sink until after dinner. I'm fine with that because there is rarely much in the sink.

The Bad

The guest bedroom took a tumble for the worse when my son inherited some furniture from his father. My son's guitars and the excess furniture from his father are stored in that room. I'm not happy about that because about six months ago, Quinn and I painted the room and I purchased fabric for window coverings. We were going to put a daybed and bookcases in the room for my books (which are mostly in storage) and my scrapbook supplies. On the plus side, this room could be put to rights in about 2 hours, if I could find a place for the guitars, a few excess pieces of furniture, and did some closet reorganization. My son needs to help me with this!

Since my son is rarely home, his room seems to be a dropping off spot for laundry and for him to crash when he isn't at his girlfriend's. To make matters worse, he recently inherited a bunch of furniture from his father which makes my son's bedroom over crowded. On the bright side, I can close his bedroom door and pretend the room doesn't exist. However, that doesn't help my son learn to be organized or to take care of his belongings. My son needs to go on a 3 hours cleaning/organizing spree!

What used to be my office has been taken over by Quinn. We love spending time together, but the office was too small for both of us to comfortable work in. As soon as I moved my desk and bookcase into a corner of the living room, Quinn filled up the office with bookshelves, filing cabinets, and boxes of memorabilia he is listing and selling on Ebay. Unfortunately, his collections are too valuable to be stored in an outside storage shed. However, I HATE that the little space I created for myself long before I met Quinn is now over flowing with stuff. It was my own little sanctuary and I loved it. The kids were only allowed in when I invited them in. We used to snuggle up in a big comfy overstuffed chair that I have had my entire life, and have tea and biscuits and read or tell silly stories. Today, I really looked at my little room – saw it for what it has become and I cried. I need to let go of this because as long as we live in this house, that will be his office and I strongly feel that people need their own space to do with as they please.

The Ugly

Our garage currently contains inventory for two businesses (mine plus Quinn's), various keepsakes, clothes, etc. In addition, my son stores his fishing equipment and boxes of toys in the garage. Since my son is twenty-six and no longer plays with Legos, Masters of the Universe, and various action figures, most of the toys in the garage should be donated to charity. He has a few collections plus his train set, and a few really nice things like the rocking horse his Grandpa made for him, that he can keep to pass down to his children.

Quinn needs to move the classic car parts(which he is in the process of selling – it is a very slow process) that are in the garage into another storage area. He has promised to purchase a free standing unit to put on the side yard, outside the garage (and out of view from the house and garden) so that we can organize the garage.

Solutions

Pegi's formula for organization, The 3-Ds is pretty straightforward; Do (fix, take care of), Dump (get rid of – trash, charity, sell) and Delegate (assign someone to do/dump). We need to set up a schedule and all pitch in on this one.