The Power of (Magnetic) Words

I cleaned off the refrigerator today. For years we have not seen the doors or sides of the fridge for all the things attached to it.

Over the years I've had art. Those oh so cute drawings that your kids are so proud of but after five years they are begging you to take them off. Funny how those pieces of art have disappeared, not by me but by embarrassed teens.

Then there are the photos. Mostly the photo magnets of your kids at sports. My son pulled off the ones of his from soccer years. He didn't want to be reminded of how chubby he was back then.

I like to cut stuff from the comics or a cute article from the paper. Those came down today, yellowed from age.

What I had the most of was magnets. Sport schedules, advertisements, calendars from the Insurance man, etc. Those cute little butterflies and the note pads. The cute Dilbert characters with the sarcastic sayings or the bubbles you could fill in with your own witty sayings. But what I had the most was those little magnet words. I didn't have those cool poetry words or anything like that. The ones from the Science Center were good but the freebie ones from Bank of America and from a United Way campaign made for a bit of creativity in the making.

"I deserve turkey"
"I came in your hat"
"special children are like potatoes"
"power full stomachs volunteer for Thanksgiving"
"my family is from outer space"
"we loudly support fun"

I might have to put these back. "empower positive thinking"

Dust

Do you think about dust? I do. I hate it and the chore that goes along with it. Face it, I hate anything that has to do with cleaning. That's why I run around my house without my glasses on. I can't see the dirt that way. But dust is there. Everywhere. You can see it in the air when the light shines through your window. It's there floating. That's another reason I don't clean the windows. I don't want to see the dust that I am inhaling. Ignorance is bliss, eh? But there comes a time in each decade that I must DUST. I recently cleaned off the living book shelves and decluttered. There was quite a collection of dust there. The upper shelves and the top were the worst as I'm short so what I can't see may never get cleaned. But I worked hard, starting at the top, hoping that the dust would float down to the floor or stay on the cloth and not be ingested by me. I reloaded the shelves up with fewer items and breathed (ok, wheezed) a sigh of relief. Two days later, I noticed a layer of dust. Off came my glasses.

Last Friday we got a new bed. This meant strangers would be in our bedroom and see our mess. Rob was especially concerned about this and said this would be a good opportunity to declutter the bedroom. So each night, before bed, I would sort things, recycle, collect garbage, etc. I dug under the bed so no one would see my pulp fiction and old tissues that find their way under. I cleaned off my night stand and the top of Rob's dresser. Then I got to the huge enormous 9 drawer dresser with giant mirror that I call my own. It's been my catch all for 12 years and there were tags and cards, and books and pins, etc, etc, etc. It was deep with odds and ends but I got it cleaned up and wiped down the top and it looked good. Except where the TV sits. Well, I was tired and I went to bed and promptly forgot about the TV. Until today. I was looking at it and noticed that it seemed white under the blackness of the TV. So I moved it. Dust....thick dust. I decided to move the TV completely away from where it has sat for 12 years. Do you know that when dust gets thick enough, you can fold it? It was like dryer lint under that TV. So I folded up that dust and now my dresser is dust free. Well that part is, as the other side has been over 2 days and it's starting again. I'm going to just stop wearing my glasses altogether.

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.