Jia - Taming my house and making a home

In the book "Shelter for the Spirit" by Victoria Moran, she refers to the Chinese word for home and family - Jia. One word, both/same meaning.

My house is a complete STY. Any of my old Partners in Clean out there can just hang their heads in discouragement of my predicament, but, honestly, I'm not all that surprised. Twins and post-partum depression will do that to a girl!

Anyway, here I am. I am seriously in need of not only getting to where I can just keep up with things, but with purging BIGTIME. Why you may ask? Just general clutter? Alas - no. We need to move. (I can't carry kids up the stairs, and that is where the other bedrooms are - all four of us in one room is getting OLD FAST, especially since we only have a queen size bed, otherwise, I'd be all for it.)

So - I need to get moving, and I thought that I'd use this space to motivate myself, and maybe you too! If I can find time with MY energy and kids, you can too! (Stories? Share them if you've got 'em!)

The only way I have *ever* had success with cleaning/organizing? Doing one small space/project at a time, and stopping there, savouring my success. One desktop. One drawer. One cupboard. Whatever I want, but only ONE of them. For crazier projects, like raking or whatever, where there is no point at which one is 'done,' (not that I rake, mind you - in Vermont that is just an exercise in stupidity,) I give myself a set period of time which I feel that I can stomach, and then go for it, no ifs and or buts. By the time I run out my clock, I am usually doing so well that I CHOOSE to do more. Bizarre, eh?

Anyway, I am going to try for one space/timespan per day. I am nervous that I'm not going to find time/energy EVERY day, but I am also aware that the entropy generated by two almost-toddlers and my beloved but organization impaired husband (and me, if I'm honest with myself) would keep my house a complete shambles with anything less than an everyday effort. No point in half-*ssing it and not getting anywhere with my efforts! So - it might be a really really small space each day, but it WILL happen.

Watch this space for how badly I mess this up. Yeah, I'm being a pessimist, and that is a LOUSY way to start a new endeavor, but I am just *sooooo tired* of never getting anywhere with this - dirty dishes and laundry just keep reappearing, and I never get below the surface clutter to the real purging that needs to happen.

I know some of the things that keep me from succeeding, aside from not staying with it - my frugal streak is too wide, for one, and I never *actually* get rid of the stuff that I say I am going to get rid of. My husband and mother have been known to eventually drop my bags of clothes at the Goodwill, but that is about all. (I think I got negative about donations when I took a HUGE bunch of books to my local library, only to be told that they don't take non-fiction. They only take stories. Don't get me started on the rant I gave them about access to information and priorities - I'm sure it would have been the same one you would have delivered!)

My frugal streak means that I hold onto anything a) of monetary value, b) anything of sentimental or inspirational value, or c) anything that might be difficult or expensive to reacquire (ie old movies, music, books, etc). Needless to say, unless something is 6 sizes too small and all my friends of my friends are gargantuan, I never get rid of anything. (I DID get rid of my clothes under size 14 when I got pregnant - I figured that if got down to a size 12 that I *deserved* to go shopping for new clothes, and, miracles never cease - I may actually get down to that this summer, pumping breast milk and running after twins providing!)

So - major space-taking categories that need to be purged include:

1. Clothes- mine and the girls (stuff that they have grown out of at their completely crazy rate of growth)
2. Books/magazines/videos/CDs/software - if I haven't looked at it or leant it out in the last three years, and if would cry if the girls couldn't enjoy it someday, out it goes
3. Fabric, art and craft stuff - easy to get rid of - schools and charities love this stuff - but *getting rid of fabric!?!?!??** Yes, I AM crazy, but I also have some stuff that I am unlikely to use, and which takes up HUGE quantities of space... garb fabric from the SCA and calicoes from when I tried making baby quilts to sell (not so much, but that is another, not *completely* depressing story - ask me another time).
4. Paper - this one is genetic folks - my Dad makes copies of everything he deems needful, and then 'files' them. More like he 'piles' them - on every flat surface available, including the floor. Sigh. I honestly think that this one will be the easiest to deal with, once I get my filing cabinet up to snuff.

I also need to get some moving and storage boxes so that I pack some stuff as I go - no point moving it twice, eh?

Yikes this is a big project. Breathe, Susan... One space at a time. One space at a time. One space at at time. Do it so my girls don't grow up in the same chaos that *I* did!!!

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

Hi folks -

The girls are 10 months old now, pulling to standing and cruising around. They aren't sleeping through the night without eating several times, and show no sign of doing so soon, despite our trying to get them to do so.

Still no art, still no time/energy to do anything but sometimes curl up with a book, but at least I am really starting to FEEL BETTER. My post-partum depression started improving in December, and I am finally almost completely off of my painkillers. Hurray! Now if I can just kick the remains of my winter cold!

That being that case, I have high hopes of being really finally over my pregnancy by the time Spring hits here in Vermont - around the girls' birthday in April - and that I'll actually be able to take them to the park, and to playgroups, and all that other fun mom-and-toddler stuff that I didn't get to do back when we were mom-and-babies. Ah well - better late than never, eh?

I hope that you and your families and projects are doing well...