This American Life had a program this weekend about the seven topics of conversation that are far too boring to bring up at a dinner party. Fortunately, cleaning and organization did not make the list, so I can continue to post about my efforts to reign in entropy at our house.
This weekend, I decided to tackle the boys' room, yet again(and again). It is the time of year when I go through the bins of hand-me-downs in the basement, and change out the summer clothes for winter, add the next size up, get rid of the too small, and assess what's needed for the season ahead. But before I took on this project, however, I wanted to get E and Z a new dresser, one big enough to hold all their clothes, with smooth-sliding drawers that would make it easier to get out and (ha-ha) put away their own clothes. Also, we need to add a loft bed to accommodate Z, who has been sleeping in the sun room since spring, so we needed a dresser low enough to fit underneath said bed (which does not yet exist.
So, after a trip to the unfinished furniture store, and an entire day of moving, shifting, and rearranging, that led inadvertently to a throughout basement cleaning, finally we got things in order. I'd like to add some artwork a little nicer than ratty old maps (how many world maps does one room need, anyway?).
M is in his closet office in the above picture, cleaning up, and he wanted me to share the "after" photo he took, so you can see the improvement over last week's picture.
Every time I get this room sorted out, I think to myself, "There. Now it's so clean it will stay that way forever." No such luck so far, but maybe this time...
I find it strangely fascinating to read about other people's attempts to find and maintain order in their households. Maybe like the other challenges of parenting (and, I guess, living), it makes me feel better to know that I'm not the only one working on it - that we're all, as they say, works in progress.
ReplyDeleteI listened to that one! Some of the list made sense--telling people about every. single. ache.--but a few were funny.
ReplyDeleteIf there were one thing I could do once and never have to do again, it would be cleaning, though. Unfortunately, dirt and clutter are relentless.