Midlife Musings

Those of you who have been around awhile know that I am in the process of weeding through my mountains of stuff, and that I occasionally use the Tackle-It Tuesday Meme to give myself a kick start. I missed it this week because of the other project I am involved with, but THIS MESS seriously needs to be dealt with:

You can’t quite tell from the picture, but the babies got in there this morning and pulled out alllllllll the coloring books and puzzles. And then, of course, they pretended they could not remember where the stuff goes. What I need to do is label the shelves.

I’ll spare you the picture of my catch-all bookshelf, because no one knows where the books go, so they just drop them on that shelf “for now”. And I’ll also spare you from having to look at my filing unsystem, full of unlabeled File folders, so that I have to look at every piece of paper I have filed from the past 10 years, starting from the front and going to the back just to find what I need. And also, I have lost DaBaby’s social security card in there, and that is a real PITA.

You know what I need, right? I need one of these:

That’s right! A Dymo labeler!

And then everyone who can read in this house would be able to help with the game cabinet and the books. I could also label the kids’ school book shelves and their pencil boxes while we are in the back-to-school mood, not that we ever stopped, muhahahhaha. And the outside of their three-ring-binders. That would look so much better than the sharpie, right? And I could change it when I re-purpose the binder, as we all know I will do!

But they may NOT touch my files. Period. Not until they receive a certified copy of my death certificate.

This week, I decided to do the top of the bookshelf whose first shelf I tackled last week. Yes, I know it is a small tackle, but since this is my desk area, each small improvement results in a great deal of stress reduction while I work.

I mention my TBR pile often enough, but when I say that, i just mean the pile on my desk. In truth, I have a secondary pile, and it used to sit behind/beside me, looking like this:

Last week, I pulled out and organized my craft stuff and committed to working through them, and yesterday, I decided that that huge pile of secondary TBR’s could join that stack, and I would let them be part of that commitment. Accordingly, they are in a box over there on the craft bin, and I’ll be reading them over the next…however long it takes.

Now the shelf beside me holds my school manuals, and this pile of immediate reads/things to be reviewed.

That means my TBR pile no longer resides on my desk. That means I actually have room to work up here. Open a book. You know, desk type things. Yeah. Get on up out of the floor, now!

Yep, that’s exactly what I did. I just didn’t post. I did stay busy, though. I finished washing all the walls in my bedroom, and today, I went through and re-organized my closet and dresser. It feels so good to be able to reach everything, and it will make getting dressed so much easier! Here’s what the closet looks like now, or at least the part I can get a picture of:

Also, I am admitting publicly that this is not even half my shoes. Just to be clear. In fact, I have a funny shoe story to relate. Sunday before last, we had a youth outing for out church youth group. I wore my red heels (you saw them: one red, one black). The other leader of the youth said something about wanting some new car. He called it by name, of course, but umm, I don’t remember which one he said, only that it was a spendy kind. I just looked at him and told him I wanted new shoes. Well, he looked at my feet and said he had wondered why I wore those shoes, and I had to explain to him that I meant new shoes IN ADDITION to the ones I was wearing, not as a REPLACEMENT for them. ROFL!

I do love me some shoes! And so does at least one of my daughters. Who has my same shoe size. I may have to invest in self inking stamps here directly to keep her off my mess. Really, how often can a woman be forced to say “Remove thine foot from mine shoon” without getting a little bit hostile? Yeah, way less than I have had to say it over my red and pink ho-heels, that’s for sure!

But I guess I have digressed pretty far from the closet thing, haven’t I? Do you think I should head over to Vista Print and order some custom business cards? They could have that picture up there, and CLOSET ORGANIZER in capital letters.

Oh no way! I just popped over for giggles, and they now offer websites and magnets and other based on cards you have ordered in the past. Wicked cool! That is slick!

Mine are dirty. Like, a lot dirty, everywhere but the kitchen. So, guess what I did today? Yep. washed some of them. It was so. much. fun.

Ok, I am lying like a rug. It was not fun at all, but the ones I washed look 300% better. Guess that means I have to keep going, huh?

And then I put some Trace Adkins cds in my queue at yourmusic.com. Because what could be more inspiring than that, when you have to do a job like wall washing?

Umm, ya’ll. I reclaimed my kitchen! My friend Ang. and I have determined to turn over several new leaves, and it started yesterday, with our weight control efforts and today with our houses. I reclaimed the kitchen that I had scrubbed in January. Clutter had encroached again. I moved the microwave to the other side, put the coffee pot back down on the counter so I can mop up from under it more easily and left an entire counter between the stove and sink clear for mixing and general food prep.

Now, just in case you were wondering just how much mess can be caused by a little leak….this shirt was clean when I put it on this morning. Now, I am short, so anytime I reach to do something, my belly rubs. Today, it rubbed against the counter and sink, LOL! It was worth it though, because I am actually happy thinking about getting back in there and cooking. I guess that was my tackle for today. Because, hey! It’s Tuesday. I did not take before pictures, but here are after shots

Ok, I posted this picture over on Cass Knits, and then I realized it was Tuesday, and so this would make a good tackle. This is what my living room looked like at dinner time last night.

This is the stuff out of my kids’ rooms. Last night, we shoved it all out of the living room so we could at least sit, and by shoved, I mean moved it without any sense of order and tidiness. Today, my goal is to get that living room area tidy and enjoyable so that the mess is at least contained to the office area while we sort and purge.

HAHAHAHAHA, the kids started the preliminary work on this just as I was typing about how I had gotten more organized yesterday. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

What are you up to today? Click the icon below and let us all know.

Updated at 11:49

Carolyn, over at A Prairie View, has gifted me with this prestigious award. Actually, I am a slacker, and she’s probably forgotten all about it, because she did it back on the 18th of February. Slacker, indeed. So, I am supposed to pass this on to 5 other bloggers, and I am having a hard time coming up with my list. I am so behind on blog reading that I don’t know what’s going on in the blogosphere anymore.

OK

Colleen, who had a very rough day and is already bouncing back
Deb, who speaks with quiet wisdom and also laughs at herself
Ann, who does that which is most difficult–she keeps on keeping on, every day
Feebeeglee, for onehundredfortyeleven little reasons and 6 big ones
Social Citizen, because I’m not judging, you. Really.