So recently I was completely caught off-guard by my inability to stop cleaning my washing machine.
My washing machine!!!!
It's a front-loader, so it has that pesky little gasket around the door. I happened to notice that there was some hair and what looked like MUD hanging out in there, and that was all it took. The next thing I knew, I had a pack of Q-tips in one hand, baby diaper wipes in the other, and I could. not. stop. cleaning.
A full hour later - a precious hour that could have been filled with 2 kids' spelling lessons while I ran 5 miles on my elliptical - I finally sat back and said "good enough - for now." And I took a photo to show the result of my hard work:
No, not the nice clean washing machine! The gross dirty gunk I pulled out of it, of course! I mean, who doesn't need to take a bunch of Q-tips to their washer every now and then? This is completely normal, right?
This strange cleaning obsession did not stop with my washing machine. No, the very next day I found myself scrubbing the grout in the bathroom, althought there was CONSIDERABLY less satisfaction and nothing photo-worthy to report from that day of work.
And a couple of days after that there was the small matter of the coat closet in my front entryway. We installed shelving from Ikea when we moved back into our house <cough> close to 2 years ago. Unfortunately, the people who removed the shelving when our house was being restored and cleaned after our house fire 3 years ago were not very careful about the screws that were an essential part of that shelving. So I got frustrated, plus distracted by all of the other unpacking and organizing that needed to be done, and never got the shelving properly re-installed. Which meant that my foyer has had piles of snow pants and jackets just sitting around and getting moved from one corner to another. For almost 2 years. Until I decorated for autumn. I took the pictures of my nice fall decorations. But I was pretty careful not to show the other side of the foyer. Until now:
Yes, this bit of organization is photo worthy!!! You can barely even see the snow pants now! I can't believe this took me so long! (No wait, I can. I just remembered how hard it was to decorate for Autumn.)
Anyway, at this point I realized what is happening. This is nesting!! No, I'm not pregnant. It's just a wonderful way to deal w/ the chaos that is in other parts of my life. Homeschooling. Fall sports. Did I mention homeschooling? (And I *will* finish unpacking sooner or later. Probably this will only take me another year.) Nesting used to be a word I avoided at all costs. When I was pregnant I would bristle if somebody used that word in front of me. I thought it sounded patronizing. Condescending. But now I am starting to see that it is not really a bad word. And it's not just for pregnant mamas.
So when my husband and I had yet another "discussion" over our boys' crazy Lego accumulation, I didn't hesitate to take drastic action. I had already made several trips to the Container Store and started the process of organizing those little daggers for unwary feet. However, somehow this turned into less of a nice organized play system and more of a painful obstacle course across the floor of the only room in my house that nobody can avoid walking through at least a millions times a day because it is the central hub that all of the other rooms connect off of. Spousal "discussions" of what to do with the Legos became more, ummm, energetic.
Finally, on Thursday I took an entire day off of school for the sole purpose of nesting. This is a legitimate homeschooling subject and my kids all earned an A. (Except for the 4yo, who was slated to get a big fat F until he went off and fell asleep on the floor of another room in the middle of the afternoon while we were all working hard, at which point I magnaminously decided to give him a C-.) First everybody under the age of 13 was forced down to the basement w/ brooms and mops to make sure there were no horrible mutant jumping spider-crickets that make me look like a shrieking blathering idiot. Nobody needs to see their mother like that. Plus there were a few <ahem> boxes that were still waiting to be unpacked. Those had to get stacked neatly in a corner. I gathered up all of the volunteers for the job of carpet selection and we popped into the minivan to go find something cheap. There was some rather interesting, sexist banter w/ the older "gentleman" who worked in the store (he seems to be under the conviction that all women are in a hurry to complete projects and that we drive our husbands crazy with our impatience), however I got a few jabs at men in general and husbands specifically AND I got $15 knocked off the price, and we were back home before my daughter could finish her science lesson. I am happy. My boys are happy and playing w/ Legos every time I turn my back.
And more importantly, they appear to be very clear on the concept that any Legos that leave this carpet will almost definitely end up in the vacuum cleaner.
I feel like I've gotten some major stuff worked out of my system. Yes, there is a pile of outgrown baby clothes in a spare bedroom. My desk has yet to be tackled. And I did see a promising looking recipe for homemade grout cleaner on facebook the other day. But, for now, I'm ready to sit back and enjoy the fruits of my nesting.
~Stephanie
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