Getting Organized

 

(source)

The Winter is the best time to organize your house in terms of what you use most often, and where it should be kept.  I know I could really use some help in that area, especially in the kitchen.  Over the past few years I have been given so many lovely things to test out and use, and I am not complaining about that . . . but finding a place to put it all in my tiny kitchen is sometimes an exercise in total frustration!

I want to use these things . . . and I know that if I tuck them away in a cupboard somewhere upstairs, they'll probably never get used and then . . . what is the point in having them at all . . . I'm sure you can see my dilemma.   Combine that with the fact that I am not a very organized person to begin with and you can just imagine how frustrating I can be to Todd, who is a total and utter neat-nic!!

I look at things that I never pick up except to dust beneath them . . . and I wonder what is the point?  But then, in the next breath, I realize I could never begin to bear to part with them . . .  they do get used occasionally, and I do love them so.  These are things like my salt and pepper collection and my cups and saucers . . . sugar and creamer sets . . . props for food photography, etc.

The problem is they are somewhat like old beloved friends, and I do so love to visit old friends from time to time. 

 

(Source)

I am also a very easily distracted person.  I  cannot begin to tell you the number of times I start out to organize a cupboard and I happen upon something which I haven't seen in a long time and then my brain is off on a flight of fancy and next thing I know . . . my original purpose has been completely forgotten . . . entirely and I am in another room doing something else altogether.

The sign of a creative mind???   I don't know!   The only thing I know for sure about that is . . . it drives Todd crazy.   ☺

I try to apply the two year rule to most things.   I ask myself . . . "Have you used this in two years?"   Todd asks me . . . "Have you used this in two years?"

"No," will be my feeble answer . . . "but . . . I think it might come in handy for this or . . . . for that . . . some day . . . " 

 

(no source)

He does manage to convince me however, that saving empty toilet rolls and kitchen towel rolls for the Children's Sunday School is not really necessary . . . and I manage to be able to part with those.   I also like to collect small boxes that I think may come in handy for posting things to Canada and the like, and . . . whilst that makes total sense to me, tis not that often that I do such a thing, and so it's a rather stupid thing to collect . . . likewise plastic Ferraro Rocher boxes, which are really very handy things to have around, and I despair that if I do throw them all away, I will soon be wishing I hadn't because the perfect purpose in having them is sure to occur any day now!

I have stacks of Christmas Cards in a box up in the spare bedroom that should really be gone though and discarded . . . but, then again . . . they can come in so very handy when you need to make some crafts . . . things like gift tags and I have seen the cutest tree ornaments made out of cut up Christmas Cards . . . besides when I try to go through them, I get distracted by thinking about the people that have sent them and the happy memories I have of times spent with each one.
 

 

(no source)

The one thing that I have which drives Todd the craziest is . . . cooking magazines.   I do collect them, with every intention of clipping out the recipes from each that I totally want to try making one day . . . truly I do.  My motives are pure, but . . . I do so hate to disfigure anything and I do wince occasionally when I try to tear out the pages.  I am always amazed however when what was a huge stack of magazines is reduced to a very small pile of torn out recipes . . . then begins the quandary of where to put the torn out pages, and I am always going to get myself a filing cabinet . . . someday.

I think the problem is that most of my childhood and adulthood was lived as the daughter/spouse of a military man, somewhat like a turtle carrying it's house on it's back and so nothing was kept much during those years for sentimental value or for any other value . . . having to pack things up and cart them around with you every few years is not conducive to collecting anything.   My whole life I have longed to have roots which I could sink down deep into the soil of wherever it was that I was, and stay a while, and perhaps there is something deep in my psyche  which whispers to my soul . . . that I must keep this or I must keep that.   It's kind of hard to explain, but . . . there are no family treasures, no legacy and I have this yearning to create one.

Even if it is only a messy pile of torn out recipes, or a box of old Christmas Cards . . . or . . . dare I say it . . . a medium sized cardboard box filled with small plastic chocolate boxes and the like . . . the pretty cover of a bar of soap that I fell in love with . . . ribbons and bells taken collected from Lindt Chocolate Easter Bunnies . . .  and then there are the red gingham bows from the Pip Studio sheets and pillow slips . . . and the golden yellow ones from other sheet packets . . . and . . . bad me, the black ribbons from years of Jo Malone perfumes, which absolutely will come in handy when I begin to make Amish Dolls again . . . some day. 

 

(source)

I begin to understand the meaning of one man's junk being another man's treasure . . . and I am reminded of this woman back in the town I am from.   She is rather old . . . and rather large . . . and she drives around in an old car which is stacked to the roof with old newspapers and magazines. It is quite an oddity . . .  and the minute I remember her, it is somehow not all that hard to throw out anything, because . . . God forbid end up like that. Less really is more. A few episodes of Consumed on Netflix are also good for curing the hoarding habit! Yikes! I can't understand how people get to that point, much less become willing to share it on the boob tube. Its unreal!  I need to be a lot tougher with myself. Have you got any tips for being better organized?

A thought to carry with you through today . . .


° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
 *"Down in their hearts, 
wise men know this truth;
 the only way to help yourself 
is to help others."
~Elbert Hubbard  •。★★ 。* 。 

 

Cooking in The English Kitchen today  . . .  Fish Fingers, Chips & Beans.  Its simple really. 

Have a great Wednesday!  Don't forget! 

═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════ ⊰✿░G░O░D⊰✿⊰L░O░V░E░S⊰✿⊰░Y░O░U░⊰✿
═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════  

And I do too!