I've begun working on shredding years worth of files that I have been needlessly saving mostly because I couldn't face going through it all. I've gone at it here and there but I never tackle it. Generally, I'd say it is because I seem to always have to stop because the house gets out of control if I don't keep tending to it.
Well, I'm about at the end of my rope with the house and have made that very well known. As a result it seems that my spouse (the official dishwasher, lawn-mower and mechanical handyperson) is making an effort to wipe off a counter after making a sandwich and that sort of thing that seems small but takes tons of time out of the day when you have to do it over and over again. We won't even mention the built up resentment over it.
Adding to the ability to keep the house a little more under control is that the kids have their own spaces now. I say spaces and not places because only my son has his own place. My daughter has taken over the studio apartment over hubby's workshop which previously served as their teenage hangout and childhood pool cabana. So she's not exactly left home but she's in her own space. This is wonderful for two reasons - spouse can't abdicate responsibility for cleaning up something by blaming it on someone else but best of all - when I come across something that belongs to one of the kids it goes in a bag or box that gets handed to them. If it isn't important enough to occupy their space
then why should I have to store it? You wouldn't believe the amount of stuff my kid has told me to donate. It has been great to give so many things (often brand new) to OA to give to folks to enjoy.
With these two great improvements under my belt I have decided to begin to tackle the next beast - our attic. I used to be very good at keeping up with it but when I got sick I couldn't go up there any more. That was over ten years ago. I've made short bursts of progress up there in the last couple of years but my daughter just bags things she can't deal with up and tosses them there so any progress disappears when the clothing season changes.
I've decided to come at this by taking one box, bag or plastic tote down to look through each week. Today, the first day, I actually brought down a kitchen trash bag, a plastic tote and a few items I pulled out of another tote. Lots of little gifty things for the Angels to put up for auction, a few toys still in their boxes, some moldy baby outfits bought for a gift and never given (makes me wonder how badly the few keepsakes I have up there of the kids' fared *sniffle*)...and a bin of 3X clothing.
Now I'm not much for saving that kind of thing. As I lost weight my clothing was given away to family members who it would fit but I couldn't let go of the last of this. My spouse promised me that if I ever needed it again he'd just buy me something new but I'd already spent quite a few dollars on these very nice dress clothes. At the time I wasn't very keen on dressing up so each item was worn very few times and very carefully.
What a blessing these items will be for a person who needs these for job interviews or office work! They're boxed up and ready to be dropped off for shipping to Online-Angels. No refashioning of these - I think they'll do more good as they are.
