Bag of stuff in, bag out - the continuous organisation of a household

June 10, 2012 at 8:27 pm | Posted in Daily Life | 13 Comments
Tags: Gumtree, organising, storage, Tidy house

It struck me today in a particularly mammoth bout of house reorganisation, that there is a constant stream of stuff coming in, and going out. Anyone else?

I don’t just mean food shopping coming in, and rubbish going out, I mean a constant cycle of buying, selling, recycling and donating.

On many a morning when I leave for work, I sling a bag of old children’s clothes in the boot for the local Help for Heroes charity shop, or a sack of plastic and cardboard for junk modelling at school (it’s good for the soul, right?  Ok, so it’s my junk modelling stuff that I never find time to do anything creative for our three year old with).

Likewise I often return home with not only food shopping, but a new bath mat, a bit of makeup, new shoes for Bear; the list goes on.  You can always find something that you can’t possibly live without.  I sometimes stand in a shop with something in my hand saying to myself ‘I do definitely need this, it will make me happy’.  Um….

And on top of that, I seem to be constantly finding new ways to keep things tidy – better storage boxes, a more logical cupboard to put something in, or general archiving of winter clothes, old photos and ‘I may fit back into/need that sometime’ type things.  My husband is constantly frustrated – the spot where his contact lenses live changes at least once a month.  Not good when you can’t see anyway.

But the sense of satisfaction is huge.  Please tell me I’m not alone.  It’s like cleansing.  Although today’s effort became so big, with the dismantling of a wardrobe and relocation of a dressing table, the house looks like we’re part way through moving in (or out).  But still, it feels good.

I should disclose at this point that I’m 14 weeks pregnant, so a large part of the above could be attributed to nesting, however I have always been like this, since a small child.  I recall, and I’m sure my mum will too, spending hours in my room arranging my knickknacks on shelves, setting them up proudly, almost like a shop window.  I actually went on to do work experience as a window dresser at Debenhams – I applied for Liberty’s but alas there were no openings.  It’s a career I sometimes wish I had pursued.

My saving grace in all of this has been my latest discovery (yes most new discoveries become an obsession for a short amount of time – but why do things by half?) – Gumtree.

How did I not know about Gumtree sooner?!  I have pretty much cleared out the garage – car seats, trikes, buggies, a desk, a pair of curtains – the wardrobe that had to be dismantled today.  So when you’re racking up twenty quid here and fifty quid there, then there really is no reason why I should be arriving home with nice, shiny new things – right?

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