The following is my new life. My mantra to my poor children. "Don't leave that there, put that away, yes, away where I can't see it.....Don't bring anything out of your room, no, not anything.....don't take food out of the kitchen, no, not even that......I am serious guys, you have to help me here!" I think I will just make a tape and play it over and over, you know, the whole subliminal message thing that they use at the movie theater when the roller coaster is zooming down the track and pieces of popcorn pop all around like firecrackers. In case you didn't know, there is a method behind that maddening "commercial" and it is to tell you that you really are hungry for a huge box of buttery, salty, genetically modified popcorn.
Those of you who know me well will wonder why I care if my children drag their things around the house. Typically, housework falls somewhere way off the bottom of my list of things to do, and typically I really don't worry too much about messes. However, we have a new mission right now -- to sell our home. It seems kind of like de'ja vieu because it seems that every three or four years we do this. I don't know if I am just glutton for punishment or if Stan just likes to flip houses, but this time, I am pretty excited about it because Stan really feels like God has told us to do this. You would hope that we have consulted Him on the sales of our other homes, and we have, but this is the first time that we did not go to Him, but He came to us. Pretty cool. We are positive that means He is going to do something in our lives, and we are ready for a change. As He sometimes does, though, God is really keeping His intentions undisclosed for the moment. Sell the house. That is really the extent of what Stan has heard from Him. So, we put the house on the market two days ago and my assignment from the realtor is simple, "Declutter." Duh, did he think I did not know that I have piles of "clutter" perched precariously on most of the available flat space in our house? I resisted the urge to ask the man how many children he wrestles with 24 hours a day 7 days a week! But, Stan has hired him to sell our home and so, alas, I have to do what he tells me to do in order to get it done. So, I bit my tongue, said a prayer, and dug right in! So far I have "decluttered" our master bedroom and today I have "decluttered" my closet and dressing room. I think I will finish the master bathroom today as well and probably the kitchen. The good news is, that the family room, living and dining rooms were already clear and that is over half the house! The bad news is that the kid's rooms and our school room are by far the most cluttered rooms you could possibly imagine AND the law says that someone has to school our children. Since Stan and I have committed to doing that job ourselves, I now have to figure out how to accomplish this with NO CLUTTER!! I will keep you updated on my progress. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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