Heh, heh.

Sster wrote on March 12, 2008:

Can I please just rip the contents of my house out like a tablecloth after a feast?  I do not have time to clean it and there is no one else to do it.  Most days I can either be a good parent (outings!  attention!  games!  singing!  art!) or have a clean kitchen.

If we could just start over maybe I’d have a chance…

So maybe I didn’t envision quite this kind of a do-over, but I have to admit (don’t tell!) that I am enjoying starting over in terms of organization.  Our old house was sooooo so messy and all over the place.  Part of the problem was that it was weirdly designed–the storage for the things you needed in one room was almost always in another, and usually too high or too deep to get easily.  We ended up with stuff in storage (in places like over the shower–who does that??) that we never used, and stuff lying around that we did use until it got lost under a pile.

THIS apartment will be, IS already, different.  For one thing it’s laid out sensibly, with wider rather than deeper closets.  Even the crawl space designated for storage is easy to get to, and if smartly organized, easy to get things out of (key: pile things on either side so you have a path in the middle).  The kitchen is actually big enough to keep everything you need to cook and clean.

For another, I am determined that it will STAY clean and organized.  I have a pretty sweet gig right now.  I work on my dissertation two days a week and on the weekends and evenings when I can get it, and I stay home with the Snapper the other three weekdays.  When he goes to bed I have the evening to myself.  Starting from scratch, that is more than enough time to keep things tidy.  For the past two weeks they have been, even taking the extra dog care into consideration.

This time around everything goes into a labeled bin or attractive basket.  On the laundry room shelves there are bins for tools, hardware, misc. utility, bath toys, emergency supplies (flashlight, etc.), and cleaning supplies.  In the linen closet (first real linen closet of our eight-year marriage), I have three baskets: hair stuff, bottled stuff (lotion, sunscreen), and medication.  In the bathroom medicine cabinet there is a shelf for me, one for Attic Man, and the top one is reserved for cleaning supplies (no more trying to babyproof lower cabinets.  Putting cleaning stuff higher than he can reach even if he were to scale the counters is easier and safer, in my opinion).  On the inside of the coat closet door (a coat closet by the door!  what a revelation!) are a set of over-the-door hooks I got for a bargain for dog leashes, keys, and slings (we saved my favorite one from the flood )

So if you had to (or got to) start over again, what would you do differently?  What would your new rules or systems be?  This stuff does NOT come naturally to me so I would love your ideas.