Day #24 - Organization
On Friday evening, my best friend came into town - this time it was from Alaska. He works for the government and travels the world. Next stop: Japan. However, he spent the day we me and the ladies yesterday. So, I was unable to update my blog readers about my 31-day challenge.
Yesterday I started working on the "living" area of our basement. Our basement is a full basement, and is different than many older homes in Michigan. Those homes have what is called, "a Michigan basement". A Michigan basement is an unfinished, dirt floor, cellar of sorts. We have a semi-finished, carpeted/tiled basement that is divided into 3 sections (due to the handiwork of my husband and father-in-law). We have a bathroom/utility room, the music studio/office area, and the living area.
The living area is a play area, and also houses our 2nd TV. We only have 2 TVs in the house, and this one is used sparingly at best. Regardless, Jim had 5 different game systems (all older than our relationship) hooked up to the TV. His hope (I assume) was to at some point play games on the TV. Of course, this does not happen. If he does play video games, he uses the TV in our living room.
Okay, so imagine a ton of cords behind the basement TV....now I will tell you my little quip.
I dropped the ladies off at school, and then proceeded to start sorting through the first two book shelves. I was removing books, organizing them by author, cleaning the shelves, and then replacing the books back on the shelf. This was going well, until I pulled the books off the second shelf (which is located on the left side of the TV). I had this horrible, maybe I should say HORRIBLE waft of cat urine hit my nose. Upon further investigation, there was urine all over the cords, cables, and game systems. At this point, I had spent 2 hours cleaning the bookshelves, so I took a break and went to lunch with Evie and my best friend, Joe.
Joe is like a brother to me, and I was so happy that he watched Evie while I cleaned each game system, the cords and the controllers. Then I placed them into a huge 41gallon storage bin we bought at Target. Did I mention how much I love Target?
Then I saturated the carpet behind the TV/TV stand with a cat odor liquid. I left it to dry over night. Then this morning I washed down more bookshelves, pushed the TV back into place, and saturated the carpet in front of the TV with an all natural cat repellent and odor remover. I realize that this won't prevent the cats from using the area again, but I'm hoping that after cleaning the carpet, and putting a fragrance and a special charcoal odor thing behind the TV will deter the kitties from using the area.
We have a lot of books, but I did manage to find 5 that I will donate, because unless I plan on rereading the book, it is silly to keep it on the shelf. I have a stack of new books from Christmas that I still have yet to read...so I plan on only keeping those that I will read and reread again.
In the section "Organization", Sarah Mae speaks about how chaos and disorganization brings confusion, anxiety, and unsettling feelings. She writes, "Because order brings peace, calm, and contentment." I truly believe this. With my anxiety issues, I have noticed that clean, organized spaces make me breathe easier and my heart rate seems to lessen. Sometimes it is hard to explain this to my hubby, but my girls understand and humor me most of the time.
I also agree with Sarah when she says, "We've got too much stuff." We do. She also assures us that it isn't about having a space like we would see on TV shows - beautiful matching baskets, etc. It is what works for me, what works for you. We are all different. A few years ago, I had wanted to start a business called Harmonic Spaces. I would help people that needed the push to organize and declutter their spaces. The economy kept me form really moving with that idea, however, at the time I believed that there isn't one right way to organize your home. Because we must find what works for us, a personalized system that can be MAINTAINED. That is the key work: maintenance.
Everything is organized. You have purchased new baskets and coordinating bins. But then a month goes by and the baskets and bins are no longer holding the "stuff" that they did when you organized. To me this says, "NOT WORKING!"
Starting small, that's what Sarah Mae suggests. I couldn't agree more. Even I (Miss Organized) need that reassurance sometimes.
No comments:
Post a Comment