Algebra and the Art of Forgetting

Algebra has become a foreign language to me. A million years ago I was an ace algebra student. I would pour over my problems. It was a puzzle and I was it's master. I was the secret agent who decoded the message. I knew how to figure out what x and y were. Now I look at my daughter's homework and it makes no sense to me. Did they change the words? How come I don't remember any of the terms she uses? The only x's and y's I can recall are from my amnio's. Where did all this information I knew so well go to?

I have a theory. My brain has filled up and to make room, it has stored this old data that wasn't being used. These are stored in that "safe place". Of course sometimes the old retrieval system overrides this and you have those deja vu moments where horrible embarrassing things relive in your mind and you have then anxiety feeling where your internal organs feel like they dropped out of your butt. Anyway, I can remember all kinds of random things that can be very handy when you are playing Trivial Pursuit (Rob and I make an awesome TP team) but don't do you much good when your kid needs homework help. Hurrah for my husband who never seems to forget anything but can't seem to see that tools need to be put away and my family room is not a bike shop.

So just like the rest of my life I can't find that "safe place" in my brain anymore than I can find that "safe place" I put important stuff to use later in my house. My only consolation is that those memories of where the safe places are are being stored in that safe place in my brain that is lost too. It's a vicious circle that frustrates me until I forget it.... What was I talking about again?

Laundry

What is it about laundry that makes it an object of disdain? I love clean clothes. How they look, how they feel, how they smell. How they magically go from being laundry to being clothes again. My husband does laundry, he doesn't do clothes. He washes the laundry(puts into machine) and he dries the laundry (puts into machine). When he opens the door to the dryer they become clothes and are not part of the laundry experience. They now become part of the clean clothes pile in the laundry room. Everyone takes items from the clean clothes as they need them but never all their clothes. I will pick through it and take all my socks and underwear and a few shirts so the pile grows slowly.

Every once in a while, I decide the pile to too large and I drag all the clothes into the living room and I have a marathon folding session. I then instruct all owners of this clean folded clothes to put them away in their rooms. Since no one likes to fold the clothes, everyone will put their clothes away.

Suddenly the laundry room is pleasant and clutter free. You have counter space that can be used to fold the clothes as they come out of the dryer. Making it ever so easy for everyone to take their clothes to their rooms. This phenomenom lasts a day or two at the most. Then Rob does the laundry, into one machine then the next, then on to the counter. Laundry is done. Cycle of clean clothes starts again.

Defining a Clean House

Why can't my house stay clean? Why do piles of stuff seem to grow over night on every level surface? Part of my problem is I have no organization and too much stuff.

When we moved into this house we came from a much smaller place and we had rooms that had no furniture in them at all. Now all the rooms are furnished and in some cases, very pleasantly decorated where things actually appear to go together. But I have too much stuff that has no permanent place. Mostly I just have too much clutter.

Definition: clut·ter n. A confused or disordered state or collection; a jumble

This describes my house and how we live. I do try and make order of our home. I try to find a place for everything and everything in its place but would mean I had a place for everything. I do a lot of "let me put this here until I know where it really should go" or what we like to call "the safe place".

Definition: safe adj place n. Affording protection

We have many safe places in our house. Most of these are unknown to us. They were once a part of our memory but due to our enormous store of useless knowledge we seem to have permanent installed in our brains, we have no more room for other things. This useless knowledge comes in handy for showing off playing trivia games. My husband is especially good at knowing the most random facts about obscure things but he can never find his wallet which he had 30 minutes ago.

I have tried to create a place for "the safe place" like a drawer or shelf or box, but it then becomes the everything place and is no longer thought of as a "safe place" and quickly forgotten about.

Definition: lat·er n. Sometime is the future, never clearly defined as to what length of time this could be.

When we were frantically cleaning the house to make it ready for guests before the wedding, we ran out of places for everything and we started boxing things up for "later". I have a garage and a bedroom full of for "later" boxes and bags. These will sit sometimes for years until we have time to sort thru them. Then its like opening a Christmas present. I found a box recently. It was a "later" box. It was stored in a recently discovered "safe place". (My house is like an archaeological dig, with great shouts of "Eureka, I found it!") This box had been hiding since 1999 or so. It was full of memorabilia from our trip to Hawaii. I wanted to sift thru this plethora of great stuff but I was too busy. So I returned it to its "safe place", preserving the area for future generations to discover and marvel at this great find.

I am planning a trip to IKEA soon. IKEA is a haven for the storage conscious. They have so many options to choose from and I love to check them all out and bring a few home. My favorite solution to the clutter is to attractively house it in a drawer, on a shelf, in a box or a basket. And you know those socially conscious raising reusable shopping bags? They are the best for the "hurry, company is in the driveway and the clutter needs a home" solution. These are easily shoved into a closet or that last tiny space in the garage.