Crafty was my middle name in the early part of the century. If it was popular I was doing it, if it was a lost art, I was doing it! You can imagine my excitement when my husband and I found an incredible deal on a large desk with room to house many of my craft digs and surface space enough to spread out projects.
Monica called me last night and we talked about the computer/piano/sun room. This room is without a doubt my favorite room in the house. It has several windows and lets a gracious amount of light in during the day. There are a few problems with it at the moment. The first problem is the lighting for the evening. There is no center light in the ceiling, which has led to the need of a lot of floor lamps. The couch sits against the windows so there is no way to sit on it and look out at the beautiful land we live on. This would be the only room one could really do that in. Monica spoke out loud about the room and what it had to offer, tossing around ideas in her head. One of the ideas had to do with a possibility of the couch floating. I have had this same idea in the past, but with the size of the desk awkwardly taking up half the room, it was never possible. I said "I could get rid of the desk." She said "If you want to, that would certainly work." I think she was more excited about the prospect than she let on.
That was all I needed. I cleared off the desk with intentions of following Monica's instructions to divide up the papers into sections of what they are to me, such as, Need to be reviewed, filed, mailed, etc. That way if I have piles that have a name to them, then I will have an idea of what things migrate to my desk, and will better understand how to manage them. She spoke briefly about having three stackable boxes for floating papers. I was on cloud nine. Things were really moving forward in a direction that put me in line for smooth household conditions. No more dreaming of getting to the things I want to do as I am cleaning up my mess and everyone else's. No more getting an hour or two to myself then feeling guilty because I am using it for something other than cleaning. Nope, my plan is to declutter, repurpose, organize, and create a cleaning schedule so that my home will be maintained on a daily basis by only needing 1 hour a day to keep it that way. 1 hour!!! Do you understand? NO MORE BEING OVERWHELMED!!
When the kids got home Haley was the first to notice the cleared off desk. She was yelling to Emily that she had to come in here and look at this! She was ecstatic. Until she realized I was getting rid of the desk. Her claim to be upset was that there were memories tied to that desk. I basically told her it was my desk, and it was going. When I asked her to change the location of where she normally puts her back pack, I thought the world was going to end. Ugh why do kids have to be such creatures of habit?
Not long after, my husband came home. I was chattering on about the desk and giving it to my sister and possibly trading it for her old one, but that it might be too small, etc. He said nothing. Then about 10 minutes later I asked him if he thought I could start taking the desk apart without him. He stopped what he was doing and looked at me with a most seriously stressed face. "Why do you need to get rid of the desk? Is it so you can go buy one?" I said "I don't need to spend a lot of money, we can just get one at the thrift store, I know I can find something good there." "Oh, like the chair you found there?", he said pointing to a chair he has detested every since I brought it home from the Salvation Army. I will admit the chair is rather homely. It is time to get rid of that chair too. But before he said any of this, he said "That desk has a lot of memories." Seriously, he said that.
Just like that, the wind was knocked out of my sails. Not because my husband knocked it out, but because I was feeling guilty for not consulting him about it. I try to make those kinds of mistakes once because they make me feel so crappy. I apologized to him and told him I honestly did not think it was that big of a deal. He told me it really was not, but he just wants to make sure we don't get some piece of junk to replace it.
Update: Professional organizer lady who was supposed to come on Monday needed to reschedule. This, for me, was a blessing. I am taking that time to get the clutter out so when she does come, it will not be mess she sees, but rather a way to repurpose. I am secretly hoping Monica and I will have it done before then.
Today: Tuesday. No clients so I am able to de-clutter carte blanche! (Forget the dishes!!) I put all the stuff from my mega desk onto the dining room table (forget dinner!) and began to arrange my piles. Here is what I came up with.
Monica called me last night and we talked about the computer/piano/sun room. This room is without a doubt my favorite room in the house. It has several windows and lets a gracious amount of light in during the day. There are a few problems with it at the moment. The first problem is the lighting for the evening. There is no center light in the ceiling, which has led to the need of a lot of floor lamps. The couch sits against the windows so there is no way to sit on it and look out at the beautiful land we live on. This would be the only room one could really do that in. Monica spoke out loud about the room and what it had to offer, tossing around ideas in her head. One of the ideas had to do with a possibility of the couch floating. I have had this same idea in the past, but with the size of the desk awkwardly taking up half the room, it was never possible. I said "I could get rid of the desk." She said "If you want to, that would certainly work." I think she was more excited about the prospect than she let on.
That was all I needed. I cleared off the desk with intentions of following Monica's instructions to divide up the papers into sections of what they are to me, such as, Need to be reviewed, filed, mailed, etc. That way if I have piles that have a name to them, then I will have an idea of what things migrate to my desk, and will better understand how to manage them. She spoke briefly about having three stackable boxes for floating papers. I was on cloud nine. Things were really moving forward in a direction that put me in line for smooth household conditions. No more dreaming of getting to the things I want to do as I am cleaning up my mess and everyone else's. No more getting an hour or two to myself then feeling guilty because I am using it for something other than cleaning. Nope, my plan is to declutter, repurpose, organize, and create a cleaning schedule so that my home will be maintained on a daily basis by only needing 1 hour a day to keep it that way. 1 hour!!! Do you understand? NO MORE BEING OVERWHELMED!!
When the kids got home Haley was the first to notice the cleared off desk. She was yelling to Emily that she had to come in here and look at this! She was ecstatic. Until she realized I was getting rid of the desk. Her claim to be upset was that there were memories tied to that desk. I basically told her it was my desk, and it was going. When I asked her to change the location of where she normally puts her back pack, I thought the world was going to end. Ugh why do kids have to be such creatures of habit?
Not long after, my husband came home. I was chattering on about the desk and giving it to my sister and possibly trading it for her old one, but that it might be too small, etc. He said nothing. Then about 10 minutes later I asked him if he thought I could start taking the desk apart without him. He stopped what he was doing and looked at me with a most seriously stressed face. "Why do you need to get rid of the desk? Is it so you can go buy one?" I said "I don't need to spend a lot of money, we can just get one at the thrift store, I know I can find something good there." "Oh, like the chair you found there?", he said pointing to a chair he has detested every since I brought it home from the Salvation Army. I will admit the chair is rather homely. It is time to get rid of that chair too. But before he said any of this, he said "That desk has a lot of memories." Seriously, he said that.
Said chair, that is assisting me in organizing by holding recycle
Just like that, the wind was knocked out of my sails. Not because my husband knocked it out, but because I was feeling guilty for not consulting him about it. I try to make those kinds of mistakes once because they make me feel so crappy. I apologized to him and told him I honestly did not think it was that big of a deal. He told me it really was not, but he just wants to make sure we don't get some piece of junk to replace it.
Update: Professional organizer lady who was supposed to come on Monday needed to reschedule. This, for me, was a blessing. I am taking that time to get the clutter out so when she does come, it will not be mess she sees, but rather a way to repurpose. I am secretly hoping Monica and I will have it done before then.
Today: Tuesday. No clients so I am able to de-clutter carte blanche! (Forget the dishes!!) I put all the stuff from my mega desk onto the dining room table (forget dinner!) and began to arrange my piles. Here is what I came up with.
These piles are divided up as follows:
To be filed, Blank paper for use, Used on one side scrap, check carbons can't get rid of, check register
The right corner is office supplies
Baskets are: Middle is stuff that needs to be relocated
Right side is stuff that can be sold or given away
When Monica lived near me and we were working face to face, she would take my stuff for me so that I would not be tempted to pull it out of the trash. That was such a huge blessing! Speaking of blessing, she prays for me, much like I do for my clients. Okay, I am going to post for now, and work on something else until I receive instruction…Oh, did I mention how great Monica is with communication? I should really take a lesson from her. (Oh wait, I am!) :)
Sounds like you are off to a good start! I had the same problem with my kids and husband when I got rid of our lazy boy--who knew everyone was so attached? Sylvia was happy until she realized the lazy boy was the chair and not her brother!
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha ha!! Oh my goodness! Thank you for that, it makes me feel much better to know I do not stand alone in my evil memory dashing deeds.
ReplyDelete