The State of Things

My house is a disaster. This is not, I may point out, because I haven't had time to clean it. I find that the more time I have, the less useful my time becomes. Today, for example, I woke up late in the afternoon when my sister-in-law called to see if I wanted to hang out with my oh-so-adorable niece. I don't pass up a chance to hang out with cute 4-year-olds, so, of course, I said yes. Therefore, another day has gone by with my resolution to get our house totally organized put off once again. Yesterday I worked for about 4 hours and barely got the kitchen table cleaned off, so clearly, things are bad! 

Piles of boxes ready to go to Goodwill

My goal is to get everything put in its proper place and all of the 16 boxes we inherited from Aaron's parents gone through by the time I have to go back to school. This involves sorting through ancient baseball cards and Aaron's old trophies and yearbooks. Things that may not have intrinsic value, but might or might not have sentimental value to my husband. Of course, once he does find something he wants to keep, whenever I ask him where he wants to put it or what he wants to do with it, he responds "Just put it in a box and send it back to storage."

Well, this tugs at one of my basic convictions: a complete disregard for the idea of "STORAGE". In my opinion, if you don't use it, don't keep it! I would like to believe I live a simple life, but my overly cluttered house tells a different story. The truth is, I like for my life, and my house, to be full, but not trashed with stuff you don't need and never use. I've told Aaron multiple times, there is no reason we should ever rent a storage space. If we don't have immediate use for something (unless of course we're saving it for posterity) we should just get rid of it. The only things that belong in storage are seasonal clothing and Christmas decorations. Period.

Our culture is obsessed with junk, and by that I mean buying more and more stuff to fill up all the space we have. I am a victim of this ideology. I like for space to be full. However, I also really like small spaces. Today I told Kent and Diana that our next house should be smaller than the one I have, and they couldn't understand why on earth I would think so. Two bedrooms is too much for me. If I'm not living in one of the bedrooms, it just becomes a space for junk to pile up, and that's both annoying, dirty, and a big job to clean out. Also, I no longer see the need for a kitchen table. Just like we got rid of our coffee table because junk was piling up on it, we also need to get rid of the kitchen table. We NEVER eat there. In fact, on the rare occasion we do eat a meal together, at home, we generally watch one of our tv shows or the stack of movies I bring home from the library.

 Exhibit A for why I want to get rid of our kitchen table

So this is my declaration for what my dream house would have:

- a tiny kitchen just big enough for just me - with a small refrigerator and small stove, but definitely a dishwasher to get all those plates out of sight and out of mind.
- no dining room and no breakfast nook - as much as I would love to entertain, I don't think it's ever going to happen, we enjoy going out and socializing with friends over a meal at Applebee's or Olive Garden
- a small bedroom with a nice bed and blackout curtains, but a huge, organized walk-in closet with a wall of mirrors
- a beautiful, well-lit living room with wall-to-wall bookshelves, two or three extremely comfortable chairs and no big couch
- a small, relaxing bathroom with a whirlpool tub
- a separate laundry room to keep all the mess away from the rest of the house

I don't think anyone makes a house like that, lol. But that's the state of things. Maybe tomorrow I will be motivated to clean my house and get it closer to my ideal dream home.

Proof that I need a dishwasher - see how cluttered my house is!