Cleaning and Organizing

I've encountered several people who pride themselves in their ability to throw things away.  Being a lifelong packrat/family historian/boarderline hoarder some of these trashcan fillers outright horrify me.

One of the most painful things for me to find in an antique store are old pictures.  Why didn't the family keep these treasures?  Did they not care?  Did they not know what to do with them?  Was there even anyone left to pass the pictures to?  How dreadful that my great grand children might possibly not appreciate the stack of old faces I have so carefully collected and charted on our family tree.

And then I remember there is a whole breed of people out there who have no space in their sparse lives for old things.  If something is tattered it feels dirty.  Who wants dirt and grime in their pristine homes?

Recently I've had to come in behind such a people in different situations.  While coming in after a non-organized person who never throws anything away is a lot of work, there are many gems to be found in the depths.  Perseverance pays off.  Behind the tosser is... nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  It is sparse.

More often than not the sparseness reveals only what the tosser wants you to see.  It's manipulative. It doesn't answer my question, it answers only what they want to reveal.  When I seek coloring books I'm offered blocks; when I need wheels I'm offered pegs; when I hope for explanations I'm given emptiness.  It's bleak.

Another trait I find with tossers is a lack of organization.  It's easy to sort three items, it's overwhelming to deal with thirty.  I know a woman who hates clutter so much that cleaning  involves either tossing or hiding.  When visiting her son's home she tried to put dishes away, driving her daughter-in-law insane because the small plates and cups and bowls were UNDER the larger items.  WHO DOES THAT?  At first the daughter-in-law wondered if it was an intentional act to alienate her but no, it was done in other places in other ways.  Then DIL started to look around the in-law's house.  It was neat and tidy but not organized.  Drawers and cabinets revealed a mishmash of disjointed items.  I know one woman who can't handle seeing dirty dishes so much that she actually throws away dishes.  My inner cheapskate is outright astonished at such an act!

I know that not all tossers are unorganized but I'm finding more and more the two traits go hand in hand.

My beloved sister-in-law and I had a conversation around this topic yesterday.  In describing my style of cleaning and organization, "My office may look like a tribe of rapid monkeys were set loose but all of my drawers and cabinets are very orderly."  Even as a kid when my mom stood in the doorway proclaiming my room looked like a pigsty and pondering which are clean clothes how I ever find anything - trust me, I knew.  I have a process and don't fuck with it.  My layers of clutter are merely waiting patiently to be organized.

I'm sure somewhere between clutter-waiting-for-organization and bleak-sparseness is a happy medium.  I'm quite happy in my cluster of stuff, just don't ever tell me if I haven't touched it in three months I don't need it. 

Organizing The Garage

When we moved in last year lots of things ended up in the garage, it was FULL.  A few months later when the inside of the house was more settled we attacked the garage so we could at least fit the car in it.  That was not a pretty day as we chose the hottest day on the calendar and managed to scream and yell at each other every step of the way.  We did manage to squeeze one car into the two car garage, but the results were dismal.  Piles upon piles of random crap remained.  Ever since then basically every tool or item I have needed was "back there" with a vague point to a distant corner.  More than once I have sent the teenager on a mountain climb to retrieve a thing or two hiding behind some precariously heaped pile.

The time had come to clean the garage. 

Teenager invited a friend over to help with the ordeal - what a trooper this kid was, to help clean someone else's mess! 

Step One:  Remove EVERYTHING.  My yard looked like I was prepping for a garage sale and the neighbors each drove by very very slowly inspecting the possible sale.

  

Step Two:  Discard, discard, discard.  The pieces of furniture I've been nagging my husband to post on Craigslist are now sitting in  my dining room.  A giant trashcan was pulled onto the driveway as I kept chucking unneeded crap.  Several other items were moved to the basement (how long before I tackle THAT mess???)

Step Three:  Get the structural bones in place.  The fridge and freezer were re-arranged to improve space and unintentionally give us a resting spot when unloading the car after shopping excursions.  Shelving was moved to a more logical position.  Figure out where things like riding mower and the tool box will sit.

 

Step Four:  Put everything away.  Once the heavy lifting was done I sent the boys away.  This is something I do in a very haphazard, ADD process and look like a moth flitting around on acid.  Friendly suggestions and distracting chatter only delay the outcome.  Least used items were put on bottom shelves and in back corners, garden tools lined up on the bare wall, frequently used items close to the door, broom hanging in an accessible spot.

 Step Five:  Admire your work then take a nap!

Step Six:  Move the car back in

 

Now we can open the passenger side of the car, I no longer have to send the teenager on a scavenger hunt to find things in dark corners, and everything I need is right there.  

Meal Planning

For years I've wanted to try cooking a ton of food on Sunday to last through the week.  What's been holding me back is a general slackass procrastination that I've perfected.

To do all of that cooking, one needs to plan.  What's on the menu?  When will you go grocery shopping?  What ingredients do you need?  How will you store the cooked food?  WHERE will you store it?

That's waaaaayyy too much planning for my head, too much commitment for my moody appetite.

But then my spousal unit suggested something that made preplanned meals a reality.  I was grilling something for dinner (yes I am the grillmaster at our house - I love playing with fire) when he thought I should go ahead and grab the pork roast and toss it on the fire too.  He asked that I not cook it all the way through so he could finish it off the next day in the oven.

No longer do I feel guilty about having a perfectly good fire in my grill, wasting away because I only made hot dogs.  Now I grab all sorts of meat and cook it.  Not all of the cooked food has to be eaten immediately.  We decide what we'll have in the next day or two, the rest divvied into meal sized portions and frozen.  This is more awesome because of the vacuum seal bags allowing to store food in the freezer even longer.


It still allows me to not be in the mood for any given meal on a particular night, so no guilt when I break the schedule.  With all of the pre-cooked food waiting in the freezer we have quick answers on those nights when we're both exhausted and staring at each other wondering what the hell to make.  Seriously, how can that not sing to a slackass procrastinator's heart???

Best of all, I get the yummy grilled taste with lots of my meals and that's just... well, fabulous.

Procrastination Folders

I needed a way to address the growing pile of to-do on my desk.  The pile was stuff that needed to be done, but not necessarily right away.  Notes were getting lost as I shuffled the more important toward the top.  And it looked messy so I would hide it away only to drag it all out again to remind myself of the next project on the list.

Yeah, lists are pointless with my brain.  I need a note to remind me to look at the list.

A couple of months ago I tried something using file folders to hopefully get my act together and keep my desk clean.  I'm using a desktop file folder rack with folders labeled for each day of the week.  When I get a new project I figure how many days away I can postpone it, keeping in mind the activities and meetings scheduled on those days.  Since I avoid committing myself to anything on Mondays, I dump bottom of the pile stuff in there.  Each day I pull my folder accomplish what I can and move what's left to another day.  Monday's pile is reviewed every week to see if I can schedule that mess any time soon.  Some stuff continues to get shuffled week after week, but I touch it regularly so I don't completely forget it.

The constant shuffling of paper, postponing to a later date is why I now call my folder system "Procrastination Folders".  Surprisingly it works.  Notes are no longer lost and I'm able to lump similar activities together and actually have become more productive.

But none of that matters, does it?  Nope - here's what's important

Grandbaby!!!!