Still Organizing

The Great Clean Up of ’08, Mid-Winter Edition continues on which equates to the Great Mid-Winter Blog Silence.  Sorry about that.  Priorities people!

The newly discovered empty space in my house continues to take me by surprise.  I’ll turn a corner and suddenly be confronted by the openness.  Wow, whose house is this?  Oh wait, it’s mine!  Very cool.

Very inspiring, too.  I’m getting very possessive about my new spaces.  If someone, myself included, puts something down “just for now,” I make sure it gets put away.  I keep seeing things out of place and getting the urge to put things away.  It’s refreshing.

I have to admit that all the clutter was bringing me down.  In spite of some looming upheaval (I’m being deliberately vague here.  If you know me in real life, you know what I’m talking about), my mood is upbeat and positive.  And that’s saying quite a lot.  I’m generally a glass half empty person.  Actually, I’m more of a “Typical.  I didn’t even get a glass,” type.

So the clearing of the clutter goes on.  We’ve hung some pictures and dropped stuff off at the thrift store.  Over the weekend I sat down with Boo and Pumpkin Girl and discussed their chores.  Like most children, they seem to think that chores are only there to make them suffer.  Of course, suffering builds character, so we can’t totally discount the use of chores as a means to character building.  That aside, I also pointed out that as members of the family, they are obligated to participate in the upkeep of the home.  I think it’s in the Bible, actually.  Maybe Leviticus.

I explained that besides using them for manual labor having them share the workload, that I was teaching them to take care of their own homes someday.  Boo is well on his way to being able clean the whole bathroom by himself and Pumpkin Girl can clear, clean and set a table like nobody’s business.  For Bip, he can put away his own shoes.

The following day, Pumpkin Girl and I cleaned out their bedroom.  Using some of my new found skills, we sorted, purged and containerized.  She can keep all her little treasures, but they have to go into containers.  Her collection of pine cones is now attractively displayed in a basket.  Same with her Princess Pez collection.  To finish it all off, we even dusted.

I have a little bit of homework from last week, mostly a bin of papers.  I think I can push and get it all done by tomorrow.

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