Ode to Organization

The recent illnesses with my family helped to spure me to organizing my home a bit better and cleaning along the way. I was able to clean the house from top to bottom, not each room, but the house's rooms. I still have a long way to go with my office because it has long been a dumping ground, but I made headway this weekend. So, this blog is about what I did to try to stay organized and how it did not last a week!

When we bought the house, I knew I was in trouble because I had so much more space than I had with my old house that I knew I would begin loading it up like a hoarder. More so because I spent a year feeling out of sorts over giving birth and recovering from a fall. Things piled up. I also got behind in the sorting of children's clothing because unlike his sister, MM, BJ has roared through sizes. With MM, if she was 3 months old, that is what is was wearing. With BJ, I think he skipped sizes. He is 14 months old and wearing 18 to 24 month old clothing. More for his tops, his little legs are still 9 months! Anyway, this has led to a problem with clothing. I have had to sort through so much laundry to cull the clothing that just does not fit any longer. For MM, I have finally gotten rid of some 2T clothing that she adored but was reminding me of Daisy Duke in fit. For BJ, I was going through three bags of hand-me-downs to discover that although he should have been able to wear them due to age and season, there was no way Shammu was fitting them. Don't get me wrong, my son is not fat, he is just built like a line backer and is only six inches shorter than his sister who is two and a half years older. Long story short, I took pictures of the rooms to remind me of what organized, cleaned rooms looked like because two days later, they were a mess again.

After getting the clothes sorted, I decided to clean the bathroom. I went through the linen closet and made sure that all the partial bottles of soap and shampoo were used to fill up the shower soap dispenser and got rid of unnecessary packaging that took up room. I refolded the towels so that they were neater and found my baskets to put washclothes and toiletry items into. I scrubbed the shower, sink, toilet and floor. I sanitzed the toddler potty that MM uses when she needs to go poo-poo (something about the big potty and poo-poo does not work) and made sure the toilet paper was stocked. It lasted three days.

My room was the next thing to be tackled. I have a bedroom that is the same size of the three bedrooms of my old house. It is too big. So I decided to make a reading nook out of one part for when I will have time to read again, sometime in the next five years or so. I have a desk, two chairs and a bookcase. It is very nice. I think I will want to get an area rug to further define the space, but since I will not be using it anytime soon, it can wait. My husband thinks I am insane, but I like it. But part of the deal is that I am going to make sure that all the laundry is put away each time he brings up a basket. You see, he will do the laundry as in wash and dry it, but I have to fold it and put it away. So you can well imagine what my room looks like by the end of the week. So, I am trying to make sure that my reading area stays clear of laundry, but by the end of the week, I had already failed.

Moving now to the main floor where we do most of the living. I organized the cupboards, and I scrubbed the floor in the kitchen and bathroom. I wiped down cabinetry and scrubbed countertops. I used Comet on the sinks. The bathroom still looked good a week later, but the kitchen did not even make it a day. There is something about the dishwasher that makes my husband uncomfortable. He does not like putting dishes into it. Maybe it is a man thing, but he will put dishes away once they are clean, but he cringes at the thought of putting dirty dishes in, so my kitchen looks a mess within seconds of me cleaning it. I almost feel like it is a lost cause, but then I watch Hoarders and I renew my efforts.

The living room is just that, the living room. We spend so much time there that it is only cleaned up when the kids go to bed and sometimes not even then. I have a no shoes policy for the house, yet somehow it always looks like I need to vacuum due to the debris trekked into the house. Of course, we have a fireplace that is in almost constant use, so that helps, but beyond that, there is always cereal, piece of GF bread, and the odd stain on the floor. When BJ is in kindergarten, I think I will be able to get new flooring for that room. I want hardwood because of the ease of cleaning, but my husband wants carpet. We shall see who wins.

The playroom is a mess. Until I do not have small children, I think the best I can do is vacuum once a week. I am not going to discuss the office further, it is a black hole.

So when will it stay organized so I do not have to do it all over again each week?

Flu season and other ailments

The flu season hit our home particularly hard this year. Although my husband and I dutifully got our flu shots and made sure that our children got both of theirs, there was a bug that did not think a flu shot meant much. To add to the fun, my son thought "Who needs the flu when there is Scarlet Fever?"

My parents were still north when I got the flu. I had to have my husband come to school to pick me up because I was running a temp, looked like a ghost and nearly passed out in the bathroom! I went home to "enjoy" a four hour nap in between trips to the bathroom. I felt better by the next day so I went back to school but needed frequent visits to the loo. I continued to feel run down for about two weeks, barely ate a solid meal for 10 days, and didn't stop having the bathroom as my BFF until a week later. Did I lose weight? Heck no! I gained two pounds! At the same time I was feeling run over, my mother texted me to tell me that MM's over night trip to Mom Mom's house was a vomiting good time! So she kept her for another day so I did not have to deal with it as well.

Andy waited ten days after MM and I were ill to start being ill. He went to bed early because his stomach felt off, got up and ate a little, and went to bed again before finally getting up so that he could pray to the porcelain goddess for nearly five hours. He is diabetic so I had to be extra careful with him. Mom Mom came up to get MM so that I only had BJ and Andy to deal with. Andy was so ill that he called out from work (rarely does) and had me call his boss (never done before) because he was too sick to talk.

BJ waited until I had a chronic, acute sinus infection to lay on the Scarlet Fever. He ran a temp of 102.2 from Wednesday to the middle of the night Saturday. He was covered in little bumps and his throat was so sore that he refused to eat. We had to force fluids into him. After he began feeling better on Saturday, his rash changed, so I took him to Urgent Care. The doctor said that it was a viral infection. That went away and for the last few days of antibiotics, he decided to be allergic to the meds. Soooo, he just finished taking Benedryl to get rid of the rash from the allergic reaction. Yes, each rash looked different, thank God otherwise I would have no idea that something was going on!

Finally, on a separate note altogether, my aunt has been diagnosed with stage three pancreatic cancer. She had surgery to remove 90% of her pancreas and has begun a torturous round of chemo and radiation. She does not have a thyroid so they are not 100% how to proceed with her. My thoughts and prayers are with her. Please join me.