Sunday, March 27, 2011

Reluctant Organization

I do believe yesterday the final Christmas decorations came down.  Now, however, I have spent the weekend trying to efficiently combine and store the decorations.  My idea is to put them together by location and store them in LIFO order (last in, first out.)  However, I find myself ridiculously tied to the original boxes things came in or were stored in. 

Having more or less completed the task (final clean up still to be done, but that'll be another day) I'm not sure I've accomplished much more than replacing cardboard boxes that have served the purpose for lo these many years with plastic, see-through tubs that still have boxes of decorations in them.  And I'm not sure I've conserved any space; there are many things that have been stored in cupboards where they are used for decorating or put in tubs in the basement.  AND I put a bunch of stuff in a 3' x 3' box for the flea market.  Yet, the Christmas closet is filled to the gills.  What's wrong with this picture!!!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Home Alone

It's a dreary gray Saturday, and the rain has changed to snow.  Tom went up to Lansing for a meeting, and is staying to have dinner with Tommy.  Glad they've connected, but don't like being home alone for most of the day on Saturday.  If it's during the week, no problem; I love having the house to myself.  But for some reason Saturdays are a different matter.  Maybe if it were sunny it'd be a different matter.

Met with Leslie Knecht Driver today to engage her decorating services for some things.  Our family room is, as Tom is wont to call it, "a bowling alley" from front door and foyer to the fireplace.  Simple suggestions that will make a world of difference, from changing lamp shades and moving some pictures very slightly to changing out a rectangular coffee table (oak and granite; I really like it but she's got the eye) for a large round one and adding an area rug to soften the bowling alley effect.  The coffee table will replace the kids' train table in the basement that I got at a Mom2Mom sale a couple of years ago for my distant future grandbabies.  Tom should be pleased about that; he's not thrilled I got it in the first place, and doesn't like using it as a coffee table -- works for me (especially since the top flips from a kiddie town scene to a plain white top) but oh well.  Not sure where it will go; maybe the flea market, or "on loan" to someone if anyone is interested.  Will change out a kitchen chandelier and the dining room one; have always disliked both.  Will put the one of the very first pieces of real furniture I purchased back in the late '70s-early '80s -- a champagne colored wing chair with ottoman -- in the parish flea market this summer.  Tom will be pleased with that too!  We have a surfeit of furniture, and the second piano from his folks this past summer has usurped its place in the family room so it's stuck in the living room where it's rather out of place. 

I think the whole process will be fun.

Think next weekend I'll put the winter decorations (snowmen and pine trees mostly) away.  It's time to THINK SPRING!!!!

But for now, guess I'll go back to working on family finances.  (Or maybe take that chair to the basement myself first.)