Saturday, October 10, 2009

Mess Manipulation


[note: this is an online find and NOT my actual house... just demonstrating...]


There are very few things I hate as much as housecleaning, but it needs to be done. Fortunately, I have external motivation. My Digressionista and Fellow Burrower is coming to visit next week and it provides me a motivation I can't seem to pull from within. My PROBLEM is we live in a shoe box. There are four of us and each of us has stuff we HAVE to have and not nearly enough space.


My husband had toilet training issues. At least that is what Freud would tell us about HIS opinion on the matter. “Everything has one place, and one place only, it belongs. After using it, said item should always be returned to exactly that spot.”


Oddly, my ten-year-old son is the only OTHER family member capable of living by said protocol. And I really should confess, not only am I incapable of following this goal, I don't really buy into it. I happen to think the places things 'go' are more like guidelines, really. And worse (in his opinion) I organize by stacking. Things I need to respond to go in one pile, bills in a stand-up thingamabob on the counter, things to be typed next by my laptop, things I am writing in the bathroom. There is at least one stack in every room. Drives him NUTS. My claim remains, there is no place to put them that they would not be forgotten (this is where a memory dig comes) and I have too little time to sort them every night (and here is a grumble about my bath/writing time—I could MAKE time, he says.)


So now my weekend goal, is to move the mess in a sufficiently sneaky way so that it appears we don't actually HAVE one. I know Mari loves me anyway... the husband though, has some issues and I feel like the houseguest is the perfect time to try to do what he thinks I should do daily.


That said, I have intentions of writing 3 ½ chapters this weekend. We'll see how that goes. I will finished chapter 28 last night and started 29. There should be a total of 33 chapters when I'm done, so I am nearing the finish line.


I finished CONFLUENCE on October 18 of last year, so it is possible these two works will have the same birthday.


Wishing a great weekend to all!

5 comments:

TreeX said...

How about: "everything has one spot it belongs to: the place I put it." When stuff is then moved (or as mom would call it "tidied up"), I cannot find anything -- this varies from audio cables (in the white plastic bag, next to the other stuff I collected for filming my Greek play -- nearly done on that, btw, just a few more pages tomorrow :) ) to shirts to underwear. Others might call it a mess, I would call it a highly organized structure that makes optimum use of the limited amount of space available. That for this reason the majority of my books blocks the light into my room, is of secondary concern. Nor do I find it weird that pens should be in the plastic container on the second-lower shelve behind my right elbow, next to the tin used to safely transport books and discs in my schoolbag, and the box of my camera, that contains the accesories.

Yes, everything appears to be put wherever it would fit at the time I acquired it, but by default, since it fit THERE, that is where you can now find it again, and therefore the place it should be returned to (and WILL be, if I have anything to say about it :P)

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Our house is neat right now. Very neat. This happens to correspond with house-guests for the weekend. :)

Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder

M.J. Nicholls said...

Oh, just sweep everything under the rug or the bed. Simples.

Hey... good luck with the last few chapters. I love that fuzzy fusewire of pleasure that occurs upon finishing another work of art.

Cake, champagne, and a weekend of extreme carnal satisfaction. Lovely.

Marjorie said...

Sounds like Mr. Tart's Mother is a clean freak. Am I right? My hubby's mother is a clean freak. It tends to make HIM very uncomfortable with clutter. Artists and creative people don't mind clutter. There's a clash if there ever was one.

Hart Johnson said...

Joris- your organization sounds exactly like mine!

Elizabeth--Yay for house guests!

MJ: Thanks for the luck, and your celebration sounds perfect! Just add pudding.

Marjorie-Absolutely! Though more an organization freak that a clean freak--oddly it is me who actually SCRUBS because I hate grime (where the mess doesn't bug me) In other domains our complimentary skills work pretty well--here, not so much...