Ever since Heidi and I were married in 2000, we've been working to keep our "stuff" under control. I have this terrible habit of not getting rid of things and I have boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff all over the house. I try to go through my stuff at some regular interval and it usually results in a couple large garbage cans filled with trash. I'm hoping that 2006 is the year I accomplish a number of things, but this year I really want to cut down the clutter.
Perhaps I am alone in the battle, but I don't think so. Companies all over America are selling "organization tools" to help us control our stuff. Bins and bags and closet management and trunks and specialized furniture and... It goes on and on. I've got file cabinets filled with important paperwork, software floppy disks and CDs, computer parts, and other stuff. I've got boxes of photographs, negatives, slides and artwork. I've got posters and plaques. I've got books and books and more books. I've got school papers I wrote in 5th grade in the same box as a handful of "Mork and Mindy," "Close Encounters," and "Garbage Pail Kids" trading cards. It seems there is almost no end to the stuff I keep.
We've bought bins to help control the overflow. We've got bins filled with clothes, bins filled with linens, bins filled with books, and bins filled with computer parts. The good thing is that we will not need any new bins for quite some time. The bad thing is that I never bought stock in Rubbermaid.
So, my initial reason for starting this entry was to announce that we've turned the closet in the living room into a game and toy closet for our stuff and for a lot of the kid's toys that we keep in the main part of the house. Total time to measure, cut, plumb, level, and install the new shelves? 4 years. No wait. About 1 hour. Heidi asked me to do this soon after we moved in and I don't have any excuse for not getting to it sooner.
We've also turned the hallway closet back into a linen closet. Since we moved in, this closet has been used as a linen closet, pantry (before the kitchen remodeling project), a closet for my clothes, and now, it's been put back to a linen closet. We finally have a space on the main level of the house for towels sheets and all that stuff. Again, it's just one of those things that needed to be done that just was not done. Total time to fix it? 30 minutes.
So in one evening, I got two projects out of the way. Simple, easy, and fun. I don't have an answer as to why this was not done long ago. I am, however, still in the middle of three other home improvement projects:
So, with the help and support of my beautiful wife, I hope to get these projects finished and take a break from the home improvement for a while. Oh wait, I still have to stain the sliding glass door. And put the trim up on that door. And patch the siding outside. Well, at least the roofers will get that job done without my physical labor. I'll work to cut down on the clutter this year AND work to cut down on the number of active home improvement projects. Both should help me have more time to spend doing what's really important: spending time with my family.
Posted by MEK at January 18, 2006 06:31 AM