Stuff

How does it accumulate? Thirteen years ago I moved into this 2600 square foot house from 775 square feet. I could barely furnish the place. Now, as my daughters are getting older, and have been wanting their own rooms for two years, I find myself struggling to find clear space. My 4 + bedroom house has become a two bedroom, one office, two junkroom house. What is all this stuff and where did it come from?

Well, much of it is my bad, or moreso, my laziness, procrastination, and lack of time. One of these junk rooms should actually be called the shove-things-in-here-until-you-have-time-to-put-it-away-room. Do you have one of those? Only problem is, I never find the time to put away the things I shove in there. Accumulation devestation. When I cleared it out I found, unfiled bills and paperwork, children's art work, Halloween decorations, a box of manuscripts, toys, candy, books, pictures, I could go on and on, but that would bore you to tears, if you're not already.

Next step, box it up, take all of it to the basement.

Now, the basement is our living area and Seahawks shrine, tv, foosball table, games, all the fun stuff. Now it is cluttered with boxes from ceiling to floor, wall to wall. There is actually still a Christmas tree down there that got stuck behind a drum set, king sized bed, and all the aforementioned boxes. I can barely get to junk room number two through the gauntlet of stuff. Now, junk room number two isn't exactly full of junk. It holds canned goods, party supplies, art supplies, bins of our childrens art work, my husbands Star Trek collection, and every computer we've ever owned since 1994 (okay, maybe there is some junk in there). It's as organized as I can get it.

Okay so now everything is in the basement, the new computer room is up in the old junk room and we're good. We have time. Things are moving slowly, but moving just the same. Rusty and I are forced to sleep in our king sized bedroom in the living room for a week, but it's all good, right? Everything's coming together. Yeah, sure. Message from my step son Jesse. Great kid. Moving back up to Tacoma from Cali in April.

"Hey Dad, do you think Corrie and I (Corrie being his girlfriend) can crash at your place until we find an apartment?"

"Sure, son." And I am really okay with this. I love Jesse and Corrie and I'm so glad they're coming back to the area. One problem. You know that basement? The one with all the boxes, and junk, and stuff? Yeah, that's the one. That's where the hide-a-bed is.

So, for the last few days, I have been moving furniture, boxes, stuff, and junk from rec room, to the back, semi-organized storage room. It's full. However, the basement is almost livable again. Almost. Which is a good thing, for Jesse and Corrie anyway.

I am ready to not even go through the boxes and just throw them in a dumpster. But, you never know what treasures you'll find after five years of boxitude. It might be just like Christmas.

The point of the blog? A lesson perhaps. Time is short. I have learned if I want to enjoy every minute I have left, I need either to avoid stuff altogether, or force myself to keep it organized, which for me, could be a whole new blog entry.

Thanks for reading.

Kisses.

Megan

p.s. if you like spoken word hip-hop and don't mind foul language my step son is great. check out his youtube site. http://www.youtube.com/user/godsfornication