Poor Tim. The Declutter Madness is never ending. Saturday he was trapped. Daniel was working, Rachel was babysitting, Sarah and David were busy with projects. No where to hide (no children to hide behind).
“Hi sweetie. Whatcha doing?” (Has any wife ever asked that question without ulterior motives?)
“Um, working on my class.” (Politely doesn’t say – “Isn’t it obvious? I’m sitting at the computer writing?”)
“Heh heh.” Slightly wicked smile.
“Great, could you help me for a little bit?” (Cause obviously working at the computer = not doing anything and ready to help me with my random projects? Hmmm. Let’s not examine that line of thinking too closely.)
“Sure,” he says with a sweet sigh. (Tim is a great husband. He may or may not be looking into a Declutter Intervention program for me).
Knowing he could change his mind at any time, I hurried (okay, shoved) him into the garage.
“I need space on these shelves. Now, I don’t want to get rid of these Playmobil Bins (the future/eventual grandchildren will want to play with them). Or these six (cough, cough) bins of Christmas things. So what else can we work with? I need to find some place to put a bin of winter clothes and a box of Sarah’s stuffed animals.”
“Stuffed animals?”
“Well, yes. She’s cleared them out of her room, but she’s not ready to get rid of them completely yet.” (Decluttering is sometimes a two phase process. From the bedroom to the garage and eventually Good Will.)
“Okay. What about this bin of Water Things. What in the world is in there?”
Time for a swim?
“Perfect! There are only a few things in there and we can unload, I mean, share this cool boat with our good friend who lives on the lake.”
“Exactly,” Tim said. (It sounded sarcastic, but I can’t be certain.) “No doubt she’s been hoping you would give her a big raft. Maybe we can throw in an extra child as well.”
Paddle David, paddle! You’ll make it to shore.
“No, I think we need to keep David.” (Silly guy, thinking I’d give away one of our kids. I do have limits to my decluttering.)
A couple of coolers to the shed. A bin emptied and stored away. Old table cloths added to the Good Will pile. And eventually there was room for Sarah’s stuffed animals on the shelves. All tidy and organized.
“Ah. Isn’t it beautiful?” I breathed as Tim slipped quietly out of the garage. I couldn’t tell, but there might have been some rolling of the eyes. Probably just dust from the shelves. Or, more likely, a tear of appreciation for the masterpiece of order and tidiness the garage is becoming.
Project 365 – Day 213
Kathy
