nesting

I like things clean and I love to organize. I have always believed that I'd be a prime candidate to go crazy nesting, but I didn't think it would start this early.

I live in a house with a full basement. Much to my neighbors' shock, it is nearly empty. We have a washer and dryer down there and on one short wall there are some neatly stacked boxes. Mostly holiday stuff, teaching supplies, and books. When we got a new couch, we didn't put the old one down in the basement. When we began to clear out the baby's room, we found a new home for the futon (guest bed) in another room. Being basement newbies, we didn't even realize how much garage stuff could really be basement stuff until last winter. Now the basement is the winter home of P's bicycle and two garden hoses. So you see, we are a curiosity around these parts to those who've always had basements and delighted in filling them with crap. I, on the other hand, am feeling the pressure to get rid of stuff.

I loathe holding yard/garage sales. How much is this? A quarter. Will you take 15 cents? UGH. But it is a good way to get rid of things, and I find myself wanting to take advantage of the end of summer and get rid of some things we don't need. I've considered craigslist, but for some reason that seems like even more work. But I have a million precious moments that are just taking up space in a closet (I collected them once upon a time, but haven't really been interested in them for several years now.) And then there's the microwave that's brand new but hasn't been used in two moves and the baker's rack that doesn't fit in the kitchen, but doesn't match my dining room, and the extra tv set... Too. Much. Stuff.

So I've been thinking about the organization stuff for a while now, but being on light duty, there's not much I can do but plan and obsess. On Saturday I decided that I could no longer stand the dirty carpet in the living room and began to give it a good once over with the vacuum (very carefully, of course) but it wasn't good enough. It looked like there was a lot of dog hair and dirt in the canister, so I took that apart and cleaned it. And then went to work to remove the inner filter and cleaned that. Then I got an exacto knife out and used it to cut away any dog hair left in the brush on the bottom, but couldn't get it clean enough. So I found a screwdriver and took the bottom of the vacuum apart so that I could clean it. Yes, folks, I took apart and cleaned my vacuum this weekend. Heaven help the person who turns off the ceiling fans because I know they're filthy and I have this urge...

I'm also wanting to change my blogger template. I don't feel like fussing with it myself at this point (which is why you have seen no changes) but you just never know.

And I still have 12 weeks to go.