The Magic of Tidying, Part 2. Or Something Like That

In a recent post (the last Random), I mentioned that I was reading Marie Kondo's The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

I did my clothes, and while everyone thought that I was spending a lot of time making the kids' drawers so pretty with the rolls of clothing when they'd probably just whip out ALL of the clothes and make a mess, I've found that this isn't the case. Maybe because they can see all of the clothes, they don't have to rip everything out, and the drawers actually stayed quite tidy.

Then we did the toys. The "putting away daily" part of that hasn't taken hold quite yet, but we'll get there before school starts. Or, I'll just toss it all, wooaahahaha. Kidding. But it's tempting.

Next on her list is books. I've done the cookbooks. And I even culled the old scrapbooks of cutouts that I got from a grandmother--mostly recipes I'd never use anyway, and I only kept a few of her handwritten recipes. I actually really want to go through MY books now, but the kids are playing with the Legos in the dining room, and since that's also my "library", they'll have to wait.

So I moved on to papers, instead. Which I'd gone through just a short month ago. Yesterday, however, I managed to fit the entire top drawer of my lateral-file filing cabinet into the filing drawer on my desk.

Now there's room in the filing cabinet to store things like the kids' construction paper (which, by the way, now has a hanging-folder for each colour, which makes it infinitely easier to get the sheet that you want). All my blank paper and notebooks have their own hanging-folder. Soon I will be able to get rid of the weird TV cabinet that we've been using as storage and as a desk for Hubby, and then get him a real desk! Or something.

So, this week's goal is books, and or the kitchen/pantry. The pantry may be an entity all on its own, just like that weirdly nebulous area above the fridge.

Random Thoughts 2015-07-25

Really, I have nothing. Nothing at all.

Except maybe cloudy thoughts, which match the weather today, swirling in my head, trying to come up with something to write.

Hey, didn't I get that book, the one that gives you 600+ things to write about? (Looks around house. Mentally.) Yeah, I'm not sure where it is, so maybe tomorrow I'll do something from that.

Have you seen or heard of that tidying book that will change your life? the life-changing magic of tidying up: the Japanese are of decluttering and organizing by Marie Kondo. It's awesome. I did clothes. Then I did toys (added that category). My kids' toys. Hmm. Maybe I should do my toys next...

The next topic is books. I will do the kitchen first.

I got married last weekend. Officially, not common-law-y. Someone at worked did that finger-shame-on-you thing because we've been "living in sin" for 9 years and 2 kids already. Maybe I was a virgin until last weekend? With 2 kids. And toys. Yeah, maybe not.

Then same person tsk-tsked all the single parents in his neighbourhood. I told him life happens, and not everyone is perfect. Mentally I may have been telling him to fuck off a little.

It's noticeably darker earlier at night, now. Sure, we can convince the kids to go to bed a little earlier now, but it's also harder to stay up later ourselves. Not that we're ever not tired by nine, anyway, so moot point, perhaps.

I'm trying to find out if we can house chickens in our backyard. The egg-laying kind, not the alarm-clock kind. What I read in the bylaws, and what "friends" tell me are two different things, so I'm going to see what the city tells me.

I was out of my office for 2 hours yesterday, and left my phone in my office. My mom phoned me six times while I was out. Six. One message. You know what she wanted? To know what kind of pizza she should get for the boys etc. Really? My grandmother has a terminal illness and you phone six times about pizza? Then when I was checking the message, she phoned a 7th time to tell me that she ordered whatever and was going to pick it up. Seven. Seven times about pizza. So not an emergency. Fucking freaked me out a little. I hope that should something happen to Grandma, she'd think to phone work if I didn't answer my cell phone.

Erg.

I should water my orchid. Every time I do I must put it back facing a different direction because it's spiraling nicely. Kind of like my life. Not out of control, but definitely not in a straight line, either.

I haven't done a BMBR lately. I have been reading. Hmmm. Tomorrow.

I'm looking out my front window right now, and I'm kinda wishing that I could see in to the neighbours' windows. No reason. Just bored.