Of order and organizing...

Back in the Spring we tried to sell our house to buy a little ranch... I spent more than two weeks working all day long and until 2am prepacking, taking things to a storage unit, scrubbing, cleaning, painting. In the end, we didn't keep our house on the market very long (the people who's ranchette we wanted said "no"), and all the stuff in storage came back and landed in my garage.

Since then, months and months ago, I have taken a few hours here and a morning there, trying to unpack and reduce clutter. Much to my disappointment, I have found myself unsuccessful and overwhelmed by our stuff. Part of the frustration is that in the past I bought too much, sometimes I bought things way before my children were capable of doing the craft project, or puzzle, or game and I have stored it for years because of that. Some of the frustration comes from children (and husband) who take after their grand and great grandparents, who were ranchers and kept everything because you may need it... and when I say everything, I mean everything! When you buy too much and you keep everything, there is only so much that clever organization can do, at some point, the seams split and you have to make a decision.


So, this week we were planning to do school... last week NJ when to golf camp and next week H goes to quilting camp, so this week we were going to do plug away at school... instead we are purging, cleaning, organizing. The kids have joyfully been really trying, sometimes they are overly eager and we put a few items back, other times their motivation wanes... but our pile of stuff to give away/sell/throw away is growing and growing and growing. (Garage sale on September 15th... I love deadlines.)




And now, back to dusting, sorting, purging...