WANTED: Partner in Clean

"Hello, my name is Susan, and I am a slob."

With 8 years of disability, countless roommates having moved in and out, fiber stuff in every available space, and packrat, dysfunctionally disorganized parents who didn't teach me how to be anything else, I am a mess, and my house shows it.

When I was 12, I decided to stop being violent when my pricipal said 'knock it off, or its going on your transcript.'

When I was about 23, I decided to stop being late when my best friend admitted to fudging about what time events started so I would show up on time.

So, here I am, 33 years old, and my objective for this decade is to stop being a slob. Not as easy to start in on cold turkey as the other two were, but I am older, so maybe it *should* get more challenging.

I've read every organizing book out there, and it *has* helped, but I have a long way to go. As of last week, I now make my bed every morning when I get out of it. Since I often go back for a nap or to read, it never seemed worth it, but now I just pull it together (about 10 seconds worth of work) and it looks much better all day long. Plus, since that is where I fold laundry, I am getting that chore done much more regularly now too.

My studio is VERY organized, as are my books. My stuff is actually pretty well organized, but it still 'overflows'. I just read the book "How not to be a Messy" by Sandra Felton, and, if you can get around the constant Christian quotes, it is a really useful book. I had never before looked at the psychological reasons why I keep so much stuff.

My mother grew up in WW2 England, with ration books and all that. She still keeps every piece of string, every rubber band, and hordes brown paper like she may never see it again. Likewise, my dad grew up in depression era Boston, and does much the same, with old tools especially.

The running gag in their house is that if they were illiterate their home would be immaculate: magazines, books, business records going back to the 60's - you name it. Plus, Dad has to keep all of his unread newspapers (in brown paper bags) until he has a chance to go through them and take cuttings. He needs a photocopy of every document conceivably related to business or money before it leaves his posession. Needless to say, their home is a MAJOR fire trap.

So, growing up with all that, I do what I learned (to some extent!) Plus, I keep all of my books - especially the heavy tomes from my college days - as a way of proving that I am a bright, educated person. Without books on neuroscience lying around the house, how is anyone ever going to know that I am a scientist!?!?!?

Yeah, I have issues. I think the same applies with some of my fiber stuff. For years, I figured that no one would take my work seriously, unless it looked like I had a serious amount of stuff. As a result, I have two HUGE bags of dyed locks crammed into my linen cupboard, and no access to a drum carder to actually be able to use it!

I have an entire shelf of pregnancy and baby books (not including magazines!), which I use like a fetish to hope that I will one day actually get to use them!!! Pretty stupid waste of money, too, since they pretty much all say the same thing...

SO - My husband is going along with my new resolve (kind of like the smoker who quits every week) to make this place habitable!!! If for NO other reason, than that when I DO actually have a child, my home in its current condition would take a dumpster to babyproof.

But, in order to make this resolve less of a flash in the pan prospect, I thought I'd ask if any other quilters out there (since so much of my anarchy is studio stuff) might want to join me as my Partners in Clean! We can cheer each other on, keep the momentum going, and chat about quilt art while we are at it!

Any takers????????????