Domestication

I am not a great housekeeper.  I do not enjoy the daily chores that go into keeping things tidy; and bigger tasks tend to intimidate me into procrastination.  I grew up in a house that was "perfect."  My mother was a neat freak, and we learned early on to pick up after ourselves and keep things in order.  Failure to do those things created firestorms that were just not worth it.  We made our beds, hung up our clothes, cleared the plates, and did the dishes.  There was no question about any of it.  Ever.

And.  I do think that I have a touch of adolescent rebellion with regard to all of that.  All of that cleaning and tidying just does not fire my rockets.  Some people get a kick out of being really good at all that domestic work, but not me.  Not me.

However.  I do get a huge kick out of accomplishment.  When I get myself over the threshold of internal resistance, and get after whatever project is at hand, I can knock things into shape pretty well, and the results just tickle me.  Way more than you would ever think...

Summertime tends to be the time when I go after jobs that reach the level of "projects" (at least in my mind). I save the work that requires focus and some number of hours -- work that is going to leave me a breathless, sweaty mess -- for summer breaks.  And then, with a list of such projects that would overwhelm a team of 5 or 6 people, I tick them off, one after one.

I've been a little constrained with what I can go after because Tom has been in recovery mode following His surgery.  While He's been awake, He's kept me hopping getting the things He needs.  Then, when He sleeps, I've been reluctant to make much noise -- for fear of waking Him.  So, it has been a challenge.  But, He's better now, so there's a little more opportunity to get after it around here.

I cleaned and reorganized the refrigerator.  Can I get a "WhooHoo" here?

And closets.  Closets have been a problem for a very long while here.  Our condos are really very nice, but they do not have "a lot" of storage space.  There are good sized closets in the Master bedrooms in both places, and then a smaller closet in the guest room/exercise rooms.  Tom and I have shared one master bedroom closet for years, but it has become more and more and more crowded.  I have done everything I could think of to try and make more space; or make better use of the space we have.  Every single time I'd get in there to try and hang up clean laundry, I'd end up spitting and hissing and swearing because it was impossible to cram ONE MORE THING in there!!!  Grrrrrrr....

And then I had a brilliant idea.  Brilliant, I tell you!  There is a funny little notch in the smaller bedroom.  I imagine it was designed as a place to put a dresser.  Mostly we've used it as a place to pile stuff in the "exercise room."  The stocks were stored there, but then with a fair pile of assorted junk piled in on top of them.  "What if," I wondered, "the notch could be made to work like closet storage space?"  That would provide about four liner feet of additional storage space, and I could move my clothes into that space -- freeing the master bedroom closet for His things.  BRILLIANT!

I hunted for closet storage options.  Didn't want to spend a fortune.  Then, I found this little gem, called a Honey-Can-Do, on Amazon.com, and got it delivered to the front door, with no shipping, for under $70.00.  It took me about a half hour to put it together, and it works perfectly.  I am unreasonably thrilled with the whole business.  So, here are closet pictures.  Try to contain your amazement.

swan