Everything Needs a Home, even that stoopid box of electrical wires that collects dust.

Welcome to the 2nd week of We Can Do It Wednesdays!

If you happen to recall, last week I sorted through my clothes using the "friend analogy" - Best Friends, Acquaintances, Distant Pals & Enemies. One reader wrote in and commented on an outfit that made her fee lousy, uncomfortable and outdated. My thoughts are this, if clothes are supposed to be like friends, is there any use to having a "friend" who makes you feel lousy, uncomfortable or outdated? Hells no! Yes, we have all spent too much money on clothes that suck aren't working for us anymore (or in my case never have)...why invest anymore time, energy or guilt holding on to them? Time to introduce those "friends" to the curb - bye byes. As for myself, I'm happy to report that I did have luck purging, mending the "to do" pile and making room for great finds to come. Do I have some items that I am still holding onto (for probably the wrong reasons?), yes. Oh well, I'll deal with those next time, along with all of my accessories - but I'm shelving that idea for now b/c I need to mix it up or I'll get bored!


This week my intentions were to tidy up and to replace a dinky, crammed bookshelf in my daughters room with the nice big white one that's been sitting in our garage since last summer. Confession 1: I didn't think of using this nice bookcase until last week, 2: I mentioned it to my husband who shrugged it off so I decided not to wait for his help to move it (it's not heavy, don't worry) 3: we're on a budget and if there's one thing I learned from Nate Berkus (think Oprah - but now he has his own show, can I just say that it pays to be friends with Oprah?) is that yes you can shop around your house for "new" things (aka, take a look around before your go out shopping, you may just have something worth moving to another room in your house). Oh, and confession 4: I'm tired of having toys w/ no home tossed around our house like debris after a tornado in a trailer park. It's exhausting and it stresses out my husband to the point where I feel like he wants me to start throwing out toys...then we get our underwear in knots into a big "disagreement" where I usually pout and blame him for not moving the big white bookcase into her room. 


BAH! Ok. Relax...so I brought in the bookcase from the garage, organized the toys, books, etc. and started feeling a little snappy about the whole thing. Then I moved the dinky bookshelf into the open hall closet (for our daughters craft things so she can get them herself instead of asking one of us every 5 mins (independence, learning to put things where they belong, etc...these are good lessons for her, right?). Problem, where does the vacuum go now (from the hall closet)...to the linen closet? Obviously. Problem. It's too tall for the linen closet and there's too much crap stuff in there now. Edit. Bye byes double bed sheets (we have 1 king and 1 single) and bye byes electronics (you need a new home). Take out 2 shelves, vacuum fits, linen is edited to what we actually use & need and snappity snap snap in a circle. I'm a genius. 


As for the electronics. I'm ashamed to say we have a WII that my hubby won at a social, plus a WII Fit, other WII games, & Rock Band (with guitar and drum set). Why am I ashamed? Because WII hardly play it. Scratch that, WII NEVER play it. I forget we even have it until I'm cleaning out the linen closet and stumble on stuff that's not linen but taking up too much room. [Insert new attitude here]: WII fit now fits under the TV consul and the WII bits + games fit into a basket behind the TV itself. Voila. Now WII just have to hook it up and play it. I'm thinking tonight is as good a night as any. We'll see how it goes.


This post looks more like a diary entry than many of my other posts. Let's distill what I've learned this Wednesday.


1. I don't have to wait for my husband to do things around the house that I can do myself and then pout and stomp around and blame him for doing what I probably should have done in the first place (NOTE: this is a reoccurring lesson for me but the outcome of having done something feels good and I just hope to do it sooner, for myself, the next time around, but he doesn't need to know this).
2. If something in my house doesn't have a home it lies around like a pile of dog crap "someone" hasn't cleaned up in our front yard (have I ever mentioned that I will NEVER buy a house w/ a fire hydrant/light post/tree on the blvd again, ever?), someone's gonna step on it and get pissed off. EVERYTHING NEEDS A HOME
3. If I don't see something in my house on a daily basis I'm not going to use it and it's probably taking up precious space (our house is 836 sq.ft. and since our basement isn't finished we don't use it). “HAVE NOTHING IN YOUR HOUSE THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW TO BE USEFUL OR BEAUTIFUL." WILLIAM MORRIS (Was this guy straight? Just wondering)
4. I have to QUIT BUYING DOUBLES of shit things I already have, especially just because it's on sale (this includes clothes). I'm better off saving my money to get something I really want, like an ottoman storage unit thing for the living room, that or a vacation to Cuba, I'm just saying.


Now that I'm exhausted it's time for me to take a break and put my feet up. Part of the reason I've started this WCDIW kick is that we're expecting our 2nd child on July 4th (!) Since I don't think we'll be buying a bigger house between now and then (unless my Lotto ticket pays off big time) I think we have to increase the size of our house by decreasing the contents of our house. That and if a 3rd bedroom would suddenly appear of of thin air I'd be very grateful (doesn't hurt to dream, right?)...

Good luck and remember: We Can Do It. If we don't, hells knows who will.