a peek inside the fishbowl

11 May, 2010

catchup

Posted by andrea tomkins in: Misc. life

Mother’s Day is all but a blur now, but it was a wonderful blur, despite the weather.

Mark bought me some salty caramels from the Candy Store and a peanut-butter cup from Truffle Treasures (you haven’t lived until you’ve had both of these treats) and the girls picked out some lovely “middles” for my Kameleon necklace from Quichua World Market in Westboro.

The necklace is a very simple design. The middle part of the pendant pops out and can be switched for another, which guarantees a limitless supply of Mother’s Day/birthday gift ideas. Sarah picked a sparkly stone that is supposed to be my birthstone (a peridot) and Emma picked out a pink skull and crossbones on a black background. Sweet!

We had sushi dinner on Saturday, a lovely breakfast on Sunday, and a restful Sunday afternoon and dinner at my in-laws too.

Every weekend should be like that! :)

Yesterday I hit a breaking point with the house and attacked a number of Problem Areas That Cause Mental Distress, several of which I had started to overhaul on Saturday.

1) The kitchen window sill. It had become home to two dozen little doodads. Cleared it.

2) The kitchen cabinet/counter. We have a large freestanding cabinet we purchased from Ikea some time ago. It gives us additional counter space as well as some cabinet space. Sadly, it had become the place to put junk. So I cleared it.

3) My dresser. Cleared it.

4) The laundry area. This took me most of yesterday afternoon. Even Emma saw the benefits and pitched in. This tiny corner of the basement was overloaded with laundry-related junk which desperately needed to be sorted. This small area took up a disproportionate amount of time and effort because the simple task of “clearing it” resulted in a HILARIOUS domino effect of things that needed my attention.

For example: I found some baby clothes I wanted to keep. I needed a box so I could put them away. The box I could use had stuff in it. This stuff had to be sorted. But I needed to make room on the floor. And to make room on the floor I had to sort more stuff and find another box … etc annoying etc.

Clearly our issue is that every available surface in the house eventually descends into a repository of crap. I need a solution. Maybe I need to nag my family more? Improve storage and make sure everything has a home? Get rid of stuff? Drink a can of Red Bull and attack a different corner of the house every day? Hire a maid? What?

*sigh*


9 Responses to "catchup"

1 | Marla

May 11th, 2010 at 8:50 am

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You make me laugh. The official hoarder term for what you did with the clear-out is “churning”, and it’s something I’ve been doing a lot of lately too! You come on over here and sit by me. We’ll have tea and laugh at ourselves.

If you and your family tend to leave things on surfaces, it’s not a symptom of being messy or even too much stuff or needing storage so much as a clue to how your brains work. You need to see things, and you like horizontal storage rather than vertical. And out of site means out of mind. I’m a “piler”, and tend to pile things to deal with later (or use baskets), but I know what’s in my piles and baskets.

Two things I’ve done that are helping lately? (Because my stuff is out of control, while I look for opportunities to flip some vintage stuff): One is reminding myself that I want to “handle it once”, like I used to do in my job of sorting antiques. Every time you touch something, your attachment grows, and also, if you had to pay yourself, it costs you money.

The other thing is remembering “The longer it sits, the more it looks like furniture.” So handle it right away. Don’t put anything anywhere “just for now”.

It’s just about being mindful and active, which you’re already good at!

I’m also operating on a new theory for me – that of “space and time is better than potential”. I can’t believe it’s so mind-blowing to have to tell myself that I’d rather have time to do more needle-felting and gardening, rather than potentially do that and embroidery, linocuts, making pillowcases and the assorted extra tidying that comes with having all the supplies for them. Having the supplies doesn’t make me an artist – doing the art does.

Seriously, please move next door to me. I love you guys.

Also, Happy Belated Mother’s Day, and kiss Piper for me!

2 | Stefania (Ingredients for Life)

May 11th, 2010 at 9:21 am

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Get a cleaning lady so you can focus on the organizing and doing the things that you enjoy.

Happy belated mother’s day.

3 | Javamom

May 11th, 2010 at 9:49 am

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Someone once suggested I take those special items from babyhood and place them in a frame. I actually saw something like this in some magazine (Martha Stewart maybe?) where some guy did this. Kid’s sunglasses along with some seashells from the beach where she wore them…something to that effect.

Andrea, you have this talent with your camera and with crafty things. So here’s something for you to do with the girls – make a framed craft with those baby items, and perhaps a photo where said baby is wearing the item in the background of it.

You’ll think of something, I can almost hear those creative juices flowing around right now! (lol). After all, if the item gets put back in the box then no one can enjoy it anymore…what’s the point of keeping it?

On that note, perhaps I might do the same…

Will you post the results if you do it? Pretty please??

4 | Judy

May 11th, 2010 at 10:27 am

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I think Marla is right. For some of us it is just how our brains are wired.

If I can’t see it, I forget about it.

What we found that helped is we each have a basket (as my husband is a neat freak). When he finds something and doesn’t know what to do with it, it goes in my basket. I only have one and it can’t overflow.

5 | Carla

May 11th, 2010 at 2:00 pm

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Funny to read this today. I spent time in the wee hours on Sunday rotating and culling toys. It has been so much easier to tidy up the last two nights, life is better. I think for me it is a question of have a place for everything because it is the stuff with no home that ends up in random places. And, none of this ‘I was putting it there until…’. Oh, and having cabinets with doors and having everybody agree and work with the system! We are slowly moving to the enclosed system, but it’s not cheap to change furniture. As I culled toys I asked myself ‘is this a toy I want my child to play with’? Because really they get all sorts as gifts and sometimes my husband says ‘no can’t chuck that because they play with it!’, but really, they would play with anything, so that really is not a good rationale.

6 | Binki

May 11th, 2010 at 3:46 pm

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“Clearly our issue is that every available surface in the house eventually descends into a repository of crap.”

I came to this exact same realization a few nights ago. Every surface was chock-ful and I wanted to scream. I don’t believe in “nothing-can-be-out-everything-must-be-put-away” but you have to stay ahead of it. At least once a week, you have to clear the decks. And you have to do some big life cleansing purges a couple of times a year. I find the best time to do those is when you’ve HAD IT. Things just seem to fly into the garbage with big loud happy thuds.

7 | CarrieLou

May 11th, 2010 at 7:21 pm

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Ahhhh, clutter. It should be a 4 letter word!! I sit here every day and look around my house at all of the clutter and wonder what I can do to fix it. I’ve even had dreams (nightmares??) about clutter. I found what Marla said very interesting; how some of us find that we need to be able to see our things which is why we leave them out in the open. I am definitely one of those people! This year my #1 problem is school papers; ack!! I am always amazed at the number of PAPERS that come home from school. I have one son in grade 1 and one in preschool and they both bring home so many papers; permission slips, order forms, charity info, homework, etc. I just cannot find a good way of dealing with them other than leaving them in a pile. And my desk is our dining table so I’m constantly moving the pile off to eat, then back on the table later. Oh, and don’t even get me started on my basement…..

8 | Shannon

May 11th, 2010 at 9:22 pm

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Ahhhh…the story of my life…though I’ve improved the clutter a lot in the past year.

Best tip I’ve read was that if you have something you don’t want to get rid of because of a personal attachment/memory but have no place to put it, take a photo of it and write on the back the memory and then put it in an album and then get rid of the item.We are usually attached to the emotions associated and not the actual item.

Our crap pile in the house is our kitchen island, I HATE it, Total dumping ground. I have baskets to try to organize it but it always goes right back to looking awful about 2 hours after it’s cleaned up (usually when we have company, haha). I don’t know what to do. It’s the first place in the house where you can put things down when you walk in the house.

9 | andrea

May 12th, 2010 at 9:00 pm

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The more I think about this the more i realize that our main problems are (a) we have too many things and (b) we aren’t very good at putting things away *right away*. The mail comes and someones leaves it in the steps. Someone takes off their sweater and leaves it on the couch. etc. Perhaps the trick is to not let go of anything you may be holding UNLESS you’re putting it in its proper place.

Gah. Think of the nagging I’ll have to do.

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My name is Andrea and I live in Ottawa with my husband Mark and our dog Sunny who is kind of a big deal on Instagram. During the day I work as a freelance writer. I am a longtime Ottawa blogger and I've occupied this little corner of the WWW since 1999. The Fishbowl is my whiteboard, water cooler, and journal, all rolled into one. I'm passionate about healthy living, arts and culture, travel, great gear, good food, and sharing the best of Ottawa. I also love vegetables, photography, gadgets, and great design.

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