Out With It

Although it's hard to recognize your own flaws, it’s even harder to talk about them. I can’t tell you how many times I look at organizing obstacles in my own life and blame someone else. “That darn mail carrier just keeps bringing mail, what nerve?” The other night I teased my husband about the 10 books stacked on his night stand. “You know you can only read one at a time, maybe you should keep them on the book shelf until you’re actually going to read them.” The smile on my face quickly faded as my husband quipped “At least I have an excuse, you have a Kindle and there are still 5 books next to your side of the bed.” He was right (but don’t let him know I admitted it).

I’m not sure if I should be telling you all of this, but we bicker about clutter quite often. We recently moved and had to store our belongings for about 6 months. It was the perfect time to get rid of all that unwanted clutter, and by clutter I mean his collection of concert ticket stubs, old text books, an old motorcycle jacket, maps from his trip to Europe….the list was endless. Unfortunately, he didn’t see the process quite the same way. Before I could complete my list of items to discard he had sent my collection of jelly jars to the recycle bin. “Wait!” I cried. “Someday I’m going to have a party and fill those jars with votives for center pieces.” He smiled as he asked, “in a day from now you won’t even have a house and yet you want to store 3 boxes of old jelly jars for when you have a house and eventually a party?” He had a point.

It’s time to air my dirty laundry so the next 5 blog posts will be about my problem areas and how I tackle them. Not the being a good mom, exercising and eating healthy problem areas; that would take way too long, just the clutter problem areas. I’ll cover the night stand, kitchen counter or entry way, car, desktop and desk drawer. I can’t promise my ideas will work for you, but it won’t hurt to read them. Please let me know if there is anything I’ve missed.