When we first looked at the house we live in now, we were impressed with the massive amount of storage on the property. For some reason, we thought that it would make up for the lack of storage in the house. Let me tell you, this house is LACKING storage space. Marty and I have a nice sized closet in our room (Not a walk in, but decent sized) and Emma has a basic closet in her room. There is a linen closet at the end of the hall. That is it. And I am not exaggerating, that is all there is. The boys' room was an office for the last occupants, so the closet was removed. We could re-do it, but honestly we need the wall space. (Right now Ben's crib is in the space that the closet would be.) There is no coat closet, no place to put a broom or vacuum, nothing. Being that we have crazy, destructive um, I mean, curious children, we cannot use things like bookshelves, as everything that would be within reach would be removed and scattered throughout the house.
As we do have a lot of outside storage, we don't have to worry about anything that needs long term storage. However, as we are too cheap, um frugal to heat our shop, we are careful about what we put out there because of moisture. And there is all the stuff that we need on a regular basis that needs to be inside and not potentially smelling musty and storage-ey. Add to that that nothing can be within toddler reach lest it be lost or flushed down the toilet, and the house tends to get cluttered very quickly.
The tops of things have been driving me nuts lately. It has been so busy around here that rather than finding homes for things, they have just been quickly put up out of reach. The tops of the entertainment center, the desk, the china hutch, the kitchen counters and cabinets have accumulated a lot of random things in the last couple of months, and once the surfaces are cluttered, it is hard to keep clutter from overtaking the rest of the house. Clutter breeds worse than dust bunnies, and our house has became a puppy mill of clutter.
Why am I telling you all this? There are a couple of reasons.
1. I have no shame. I could care less if there is someone out there who is reading this and thinking, "Oh my goodness, she had four kids in four years and she cannot keep her house clean? What a horrible mother! Tsk, tsk!" The reason I do not care is because anyone who is thinking that does not have four kids, and does not know what it is like. If they did have four kids, they would not have time to read this and then form a coherent thought afterwards, before being interrupted by screaming children who are fighting over who stole whose toy and then beat who over the head with it. The late great Dr. Seuss once said, "Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter, don't mind."
2. This is my lame-brain attempt to try and give a lame excuse why I did not blog all weekend. I did try, several times, but got distracted by screaming children who were fighting over who stole whose toy and then beat who over the head with it. I honestly think I started four posts, but did not get further than one sentence before having to get up and solve crisises. (Crisises? Crisies? Is is like mouse/mice, or octopus/octopi?)
Anywhoo, I spent the weekend painting and hanging shelves and cleaning the tops of things. Add to that yesterday's gorging of thousands of empty calories while watching the commercials, wait, I mean the Superbowl, and I had a good weekend. Oh, and I almost forgot, I got to go to the mall on Saturday, and I bought some new shoes! My first new pair in over two years, I am so excited. I love getting cash for Christmas.
So I had the most exciting weekend I have had in a long time. New shoes, new shelves, cleaning the house, and good food. Ah, this is the life! I feel so good, almost like I am floating on a raft in a pool in a tropical resort, with a cute waiter bringing me a fruity drink with an umbrella in it. Oh, wait, the kids are fighting again. Never mind!
1 comment:
You need a crown. 4 kids 4 and under and you even have time to clean you are a saint. Life is WAY too boring if you don't have little ones running around and making life interesting. What would we blog about if they weren't around?
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