a quick confession

I'm a bit of a clutter bug... I have always had a bad tendency to revert to my pack rat heritage and "collect" things like baskets, bed linens, picture frames, great yard sale finds, and as the Man can attest-- furniture (that is usually too big for the room, or to fit through the door.)

In recent years, I've grown more and more in the opposite direction. I found that a tidy home makes me happy and a messy home makes me, well honestly, a little crazy. Granted, I'm no Martha and I don't fuss too much over a spotless house. In my opinion, I don't have the time or the energy to stress over whether or not I've washed the windowsills or the last time I cloroxed the inside of the fridge.

I do try to keep clutter at bay and give the nest a deep cleaning as time permits. I've been able to find balance through purging regularly, but there is a constant battle between my clutter bug self and my longing for a tidy home.

All this is to show that I get my trials with being a pack rat "honest." The Dad is known for his pack rat stance and recently upon bringing Dear Mother home from the hospital we encountered her clutter head first:

Meet her dining room table, Mom hearts plastic bins.

Let me backtrack, Dear Mother had knee replacement surgery last Tuesday. We spent an eventful and entertaining few days staying around the clock at the hospital and she was able to return home on Friday. She had mentioned to me that she wanted some help organizing during her time off for recovery and being the nerd that I am (who looves organization) I agreed.

More bins!

I wasn't quite so agreeable when I realized that I would be spending the weekend weeding and wading through her conglomeration of containers.

The dining room from another angle, note the desk and snake pit of cables.

I can get a little fussy when I'm feeling trapped in a messy house.

The kitchen.

So I can't say that I was the cheeriest of chicks for the first little while.. but when we started to see some progress, Dear Mother and I both began to see the labeled light at the end of the tunnel.

And we kept going.. her in the recliner, and me pulling things out of the deathtrap, ahem, closet under the stairs and her pantry/storage closet. And we purged and it was amazing. We ended up with a couch full of things to donate. But I was tired, and didn't really feel like hauling things through the house, into the car, driving to Goodwill and unloading again. So my lazy butt posted an ad on Craigslist.

Within the first thirty minutes, we had three phone calls, four e-mails and a text asking about our free stuff. If you ever need to get rid of anything, call me first. If I don't want it, then post it as free on CL.. it works wonders!

It only took an hour and everything was gone. And then we got back to work, or rather Dear Mother went back to doing her knee exercises and drinking ice tea and I dove back into categorizing, packing, shuffling, hauling, and organizing the mess out of her... well, mess.