Put a Bullet in It

by Kasey Tross

New year, new adventures, new goals, new organization!

Yes, it's 2017, and like so many others, I have my sights set on new and exciting things for the year, and I've decided that one of those new things I want to try is a Bullet Journal. 

Bullet journaling has become this hot new trend, an "Analog System for the Digital Age." I first heard about it from a good friend- one of those people who always seems to have it all together, both temporally and emotionally/spiritually- and so it piqued my interest (grammar lesson for today, kiddos- it's "piqued my interest" not "peaked my interest." You're welcome.)

I asked her some questions about it one day, but I still didn't really "get" it, so I didn't think about it again until someone on a Facebook page I follow posted a link to a short video about it. I love a good how-to video, and this one's only 4 minutes long and it was made by the person who actually came up with the idea of bullet journaling, so I took 4 minutes out of my day to watch it. After that, I decided it was worth a shot (get it? BULLET journaling? Worth a SHOT? I am hilarious.)

Fortunately, I had a cute spiral-bound journal with my initial on it and a matching pen- Christmas gifts from my visiting teacher- and they just begged to become a part of my daily life, so I drafted them into service in my bullet journaling adventure.

So, how does it work?

Basically, your bullet journal becomes your brain- your planner, your calendar, your random-note-taking station, your to-do lists, etc. Because it is all of these things, it also serves as an actual journal of your life.

The first part of the journal is the index- and this is the part where I think the magic really comes in, because it allows you to really write anything you want in your bullet journal. One page might be a daily to-do list, another page might be an idea for your next book, another page might be gift ideas for your husband's birthday- just put it all in there! Then you simply go back to your index and add in the title of whatever it is, note the page number, and then you will always be able to find it.

There are some other core parts to bullet journals as well to help you plan your life, but what I love about it is that it is evolving, imperfect, and flexible. Because aren't we all evolving, imperfect, and flexible? I love that I can keep all my crazy ideas in one spot and know they're all right there.

I set up my bullet journal last night, and so far I have all my basics (see video), plus today's to-do list (#6 Write MMW post), a list of book titles I'd like to propose in a meeting of a brand-new book club starting this month, and a page for me to plan my daughter's birthday coming up next week (gift ideas, what she wants for dinner that day, her preferred cake flavor, etc.). 

I'm just starting on my bullet journaling adventure, but I'm excited to see what happens. I just love the idea of recording life in ink on a page, and I love that I can do that and get more organized at the same time.

How about you? Have you ever tried bullet journaling or do you think you might?

Rummaging Through the Tough Stuff

by Patricia Cates

What makes rummaging through drawers tough? I'll tell you. It's the memories found therein.

Bittersweet they are.

This past week I was sort of compelled (forced) to rummage through my home's kitchen junk drawers. Normally I can find misplaced items here. When that didn't do the trick, I continued to dig through every dresser in the house. I overturned every stray corner and pile possible, down to my cookbook shelf. I emptied out every pretty little storage box and basket. Twice!

You see...I desperately needed to find a thin soft-backed book that my grandmother had put together back in 1979. It holds all of the family pictures, critical dates and personal stories of my father's family history. I refer to it often. My 15 year old daughter is doing a large project to earn her medallion and it's vital she have this resource.

I soon became frustrated with myself as I have never let this book leave the house. I was also irritated at how disorganized I've apparently become. I was angry at the thought that someone might have cleaned up and put the book somewhere without my knowledge. Although that would be a rarity. Mostly I was (am) freaked out that it has gotten lost in a pile of paper somewhere and been recycled!!!

Our "office" is my library, but it also serves as a homework area. We have a long solid surface countertop laid over the top of four miniature filing cabinets. That means three workstations and plenty of computer space. Over the years the space hasn't been used much; as kids like to do homework in the kitchen, living room, family room, or in their own room, and PC's are somewhat obsolete. So the office has really just become an extra room in the basement that no one goes in, or so I thought.

When I decided to search the office for the book, I opened some of those filing cabinet drawers and I became even more annoyed. Household members had obviously been storing (shoving) all sorts of things in there for years. There were random bags of old crayons and coloring books mixed with scrapbooking paper, glue, tools, folders and receipts. I found lost eyeglasses and keys and hundreds of pictures my 21 year old daughter had taken in junior high. In the bottom of one drawer a portion of my pristinely kept Ensigns were laid bent into a shoebox too small to hold them, along with my best (lost) travel magazines. I also found a whole cabinet my husband took over when he moved in. It was riddled with unopened mail, stuff his kids made for him in grade school, and tidbits from his former life, which I totally respect. Sadly the cupboard above holds the photos and albums of my family members long passed away, as well as my former marriage. The kids can have some of them when they are older. I don't dare open one now. Knowing what's inside the pages bring about emotions I cannot face while trying to clean. Totally counterproductive.

There were too many things found in these drawers to mention here. But I will say that I fully understand why I have been avoiding them. I am reminded of my children not being little anymore. Reminded of wonderful family vacations and a failed marriage. Reminded my wonderful husband was once married to his high school sweetheart. Reminded that my kids are messy and that I hate paperwork. Maybe subconsciously I wanted to hold on to more than coloring books. I have a tough time facing the past without falling apart and I know that. Thinking of it all makes me want to cry in utter defeat, not only for the mess at hand, but for the lost hope and the former me. The former me was ultra organized and totally unbeatable. I miss her.

So this precious book may be lost for now, but it will resurface. In the mean time I am cleaning it all out. Once I got going it wasn't so bad. We (me and the former me) are about half way through now. I recycled about 15 pounds of paper from my husbands desk. His was easy. It was all unemotional business stuff he was holding onto for taxes, prior to 2008, and held no connection for me. He is grateful I did that for him, as it needed to be done. I also very neatly put his mementos safely away in a box, as I know it would be equally upsetting for him to be reminded of how sweet his ex was before she upped and left. They were really cute in high school. I cry for him too.

I have chosen to let my kids decide what to do with the coloring books. Some of them hold their best work inside the pages. The Barbie Princess one especially. I can't let it go. Hopefully they can catch a glimpse of their own sort of nostalgia and learn about families and pitching in along the way.

One Question That Will Make You a Better Writer, Make You a Better Wife & Mom, and Even Clean Your House (no, really- I have the before and after pictures to prove it!)

Back in June I wrote about this totally life-changing method for decluttering (aka, tidying) called KonMari.

Just so you know, it's still life-changing. Life has been changed. So much.

So much that I had to share it with you again!

First off, let me show you that photo of that drawer from my last post in June:

Isn't it lovely?

Here is that same drawer today- I literally stopped writing this and went upstairs, opened it, snapped this photo. No rearranging or retouching (though it is at a slightly different angle and more clothes are showing and I didn't have as much natural light, so it's not "glowing" quite as much).

Still lovely! How is that possible? (notice there's a pale green shirt absent- I decided at some point over the summer that it didn't spark joy. So I plucked it out and put it in my donate pile. Easy joy!)

The reason it's still lovely is this: this drawer sparks joy. And everything in it sparks joy. So when I put these, my favorite clothes away (I'm kind of a clothes horse, so I have a lot of favorites), I feel happy to do so.

The question that I mentioned in the title of my post is this: 

Does it SPARK JOY?

Does your home spark joy? Do your belongings spark joy? If they don't, it's time for them to go (just your belongings, not your home). Because when your home is a wreck and your stuff is shoved in, stacked, smooshed, and you have to work hard to find things you need, you are not feeling the joy. Once that load is lifted, when you are able to open closets and smile, when you open a drawer and can clearly see everything in it nestled happily in its own spot, you can breathe.

And when you are happy and you can breathe, guess what else you can do? You can WRITE! Because finally, you have a home that isn't screaming CLEAN ME!!!! in your head, drowning out all your great ideas and suffocating your creativity. There is a palpable change in the energy flow of a home when it only contains items that spark joy, items that are joyfully arranged and stored respectfully.

When this was lurking behind my master bedroom linen closet, the last thing I felt was happy and ready to write:

I can practically hear everything in there crying to be let out, to have space, to not be getting lost and crushed. UGH!

But this? Holy cow, does this ever spark joy! Everything in its own spot, with its own breathing room. This sparks joy. This- towels, toilet paper, and hair products, of all things- inspires me (yes, this is the same closet- and the books are part of my gift stash, lol). 

One of my favorite things about the KonMari method is that she encourages you to not only declutter your stuff, but to mindfully choose what you keep (does it spark JOY?) and then, because you have chosen to keep it, to respect it, and to mindfully display/store it in a way that also sparks joy.

Another horrifying before. (Does anyone else think it looks like a few of these items are actually trying to climb out and commit suicide? SO SAD. Don't do it, purple bottle! It's not worth it!)

And after. 

I still haven't totally finished with this yet- most of these items are things whose categories I haven't yet tackled, but I was able to get enough out that did fit in the other categories that it's looking a LOT better.*

Another before. This was under my bathroom counter, with the blue basket on the floor that usually lives on the top shelf.

That one green bottle on the top shelf and the gold one on the bottom have just given up completely. I can't say that I blame them. 

And after.

Looks like I still need to wipe down that shelf a bit (oh, the delights of a flash in a dark space). But the top shelf has just the two items you see, the bottom has the first aid kit and hair dryer, flat iron, and curling iron (which I will be getting a holding container for soon).

Kids' books before- no, we do not normally keep them in a massive pile on our living room floor (convenient though that may be), we gathered them from all over the house as per the KonMari method.

The living room kids' books after (they each selected their favorites for their own rooms as well):

The (gulp) coat closet in the foyer before:

And after we took everything out and I announced 1 pair of shoes allowed in the closet per family member (with the exception of the snow boots)- everything else goes in bedrooms:

My bathroom drawer after (didn't take a before- but trust me, it was scary):

A few more "afters" with no "befores"...

...my nightstand drawer... 

(I realized one of the reasons things were getting lost in here was because it was so dark, so I added some pretty black and white floral toile contact paper in the bottom. Joy! And as you can see, I have not yet KM'd my writing utensils. Another category. Another day.)

 ...kids' medicine cabinet (nothing but mouthwash, ibuprofen, cough medicine, thermometer, Vicks vapor rub, and some stuff for their fish tanks)...

...and our kitchen medicine cabinet, which was so bad before that I had a cardboard box of overflow sitting on the kitchen counter *cough*hoarder*cough*, and the cabinet itself was stuffed, and whenever I wanted to find something 6 other things would fall out. At least.

Now it's separate baskets for pain meds, cold meds, tummy meds, thermometers, and a first-aid kit, each  in their own spot. No more will I come to this cabinet, feeling sick and miserable, and end up feeling more sick and miserable (and sometimes even tearful) having to shuffle through old, expired medications and weird, goo-covered bottles just to find some relief. I did my future sick self a big favor by cleaning this up for her.

Can't you just FEEL the positive, joy-sparking energy flowing through these open spaces?!

The purpose of this post was not just to show off my progress (well, okay, maybe a little- I'm so freakin' proud of myself!) but also to show you that if you're in a similar situation- drowning in clutter- there's another way to do this, and if I can do it, then you can too. And your family will get on board. My husband was so thrilled with my progress that he went through his clothes all on his own, then his nightstand, and he helped me with the meds (and he wasn't doing any of it in his usual 'if-we-don't-get-some-of-this-crap-out-of-here-I'm-going-to-LOSE-IT' way either!) I have tried to declutter in the past, and had some short-term success with it, but Marie Kondo finally taught me HOW. 

I still have a long way to go- many more categories that need some joy, like pots & pans, cleaning supplies, my books (gulp), and craft supplies (heaven help me), but I am excited to keep going because I can feel the change, and it is thrilling. I can only imagine how incredible it will feel when the whole house is this way. 

So again, if you're in the same boat (and I know this is a downfall of creative people- we're messy!) and you need something that will work, THIS IS IT. That's all. This is it.

I will keep you updated as my house progresses. :-)

*In the KonMari method you declutter by category, not by area of your house. So when it was time for us to do medications, we gathered every single medication from every location in the house- bathrooms, kitchen, bedrooms- and sorted them all together. Makes you realize how much you really have, and makes you really think about where you store it.

Why the KonMari Method Really Is Life-Changing

Two weeks ago I talked about this book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo. Last week I finished the book and began my own "tidying festival", or as I like to call it, "sparking joy." Kondo claims in her book that people who use her method never go back to living a cluttered lifestyle, and after trying it out for a week, I can totally understand why.

 My joyful dresser. I could not even see the top of it when I started this process.

First, you only keep those items that spark joy. This is what makes this process so much fun. Rather than trying to figure out what you need to get rid of, you're focusing on what makes you happy (either because you love it or it serves a necessary purpose in your life) and what you are choosing to keep. This means that decluttering feels a lot like a treasure hunt, and it makes it very easy to toss a LOT of things, because once you start focusing on that feeling of joy, it is obvious what doesn't bring that feeling, and you immediately lose any sense of attachment to those joy-less items. If it's not bringing you joy, it's not fulfilling its purpose in your life and you are doing it (and yourself) a favor by letting it move on.

You are in a relationship with everything you own, and like any relationship, if that relationship isn't fulfilling you and making you happy, you need to let it go.

A relationship, you say? Yes. Which brings me to my next point.

You begin to see your possessions as sentient beings. Okay, this one sounds weird. I get that you think I'm strolling into the land of crazy here, but bear with me. Kondo encourages you to talk to your items and consider their feelings (I KNOW just bear with me!) and it's amazing how much that changes how you treat them, and how easy it is to discard those items that don't bring you joy.

I was helping my son spark some joy in his room and he has a huge collection of stuffed animals. We decided to go through those first, and when I told him we were going to, he started to panic. "But I love ALL of them!" I wasn't sure how far we would get. But as he took each one and held it in his hands, I could clearly see on his face which really sparked joy and which didn't, and he could tell too. Once he picked one up and said, "Well...I kind of like this one. And I paid a dollar for it. I don't want my dollar to be wasted." I said, "Did it make you happy to buy it and bring it home?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Then it wasn't a wasted dollar at all. That dollar brought you several moments of happiness. Now this toy doesn't bring you happiness anymore, so it's time to let it go." He hugged and kissed each one and told it he hoped it would find someone else who would love it more than he did.

There were other times when he was on the fence and I reminded him that it's not fair for a stuffed animal to be in a home where it's not played with and not loved. That realization made it easier for him to let those toys go.

By the time we were done, we had filled an entire garbage bag with stuffed animals that were ready for new homes.

For another example, this week I went grocery shopping. Usually when I shop, I bring the groceries inside and I put the bags down and I'll put away the frozen and refrigerated stuff and then take a break. By the end of the day everything is usually put away. I'll stuff my reusable shopping bags into one bag and go toss it in my coat closet in the foyer. This week, however, I brought the groceries in and as I emptied bags, I thanked them for helping me carry everything. I couldn't very well stuff them into a bag after expressing such gratitude to them, could I? I found myself carefully folding them and placing them into one bag in an organized fashion.

Then I saw all the food I had unloaded. I welcomed it into my home, and you know, when you have guests (even if it is a can of peaches) it's not very polite to just make them sit around until you get around to showing them where they'll be staying, right? It seemed wrong to just have stuff sitting in limbo on my kitchen table, so I immediately put the groceries onto the shelves where they would be until I used them. If the shelves were crowded, rather than just stuff things in, I cleared things out and made some room. Who wants to be shoved in a tight, cramped space?

One more example: I was doing the laundry the other day and pouring the laundry detergent into the machine. As I did, I noticed an empty bottle of detergent sitting out that I'd never thrown away. I glanced down at the mostly full bottle I was using and I felt a pang of guilt about that empty bottle. I mean, he's just sitting there, completely useless, while this other bottle is happily being used right in front of him. That's almost cruel! I knew I had to throw him away, so I went to put him in the trash can- but that was stuffed full. Well, that can't be comfortable for that trash can, I thought. So I quickly emptied it, putting the empty detergent bottle in as well (I could feel his relief at being put out of his misery) and took it out to the curb.

So you can see, I'm not thinking of cleaning up as a chore anymore- it's just happening naturally (okay, it's a little unnatural, I know) with this mindset. When you give human feelings to objects you start to want to give them the space and respect that comes with being organized and tidy.

Happy drawers!

I discarded 4 full kitchen-sized garbage bags full of my clothes last week, and my other clothes are happily residing in my drawers and closet, very neatly folded and organized. I know that the clothes in there are the ones I chose, and they are important to me, so I'm going to treat them that way. I'm thinking of my stuff differently, which brings me to my next point:

Expressing gratitude makes you a happier person. This is just a proven fact. Grateful people are happier people. When you spend all day thanking everything around you for the job it does in your life, you just get happier, and you feel lighter (not to mention the fact that now you have way less stuff and that feels awesome too). You can walk around your home and see nothing but things that make you happy, and you fully appreciate those things for their roles in your everyday life. When you come home you say, "Hello, house! I'm home!" Then you hang up your jacket and thank it for keeping you warm and dry. You put your purse away and thank it for helping you carry your stuff around all day. You empty your dishwasher and thank it for doing its job for you, washing all those dishes. Yes, it sounds a little crazy. But doesn't it also sound just so happy?

Well, that's how this book is changing my life. If you see me talking to my purse, now you'll know why.

P.S. Thank you, computer, for helping me to write and publish this post! You're awesome! xoxo

Two Suprisingly Simple Keys to Finally GETTING THINGS DONE

First, I wish you all a very blessed Memorial Day- we here at MMW salute the men and women who put their lives in danger for our freedom, and especially those who have lost their lives for this cause. May God watch over those who serve and the families of those who have served.

Back at the end of March I mentioned that I was busy trying to get my mind organized, and guess what? It's actually happening!

Some incredible things have been occurring around here. First, you know The Pile of papers you have on your kitchen counter/desk/table? The Pile, containing bills you've already paid, flyers from the kids' schools, junk mail, coupons you might want to use, kids' artwork, greeting cards, etc.? Well, mine has disappeared. It hightailed it out of there a few weeks ago and hasn't been back since. And no, it didn't migrate to one of the other piles of paper in my office or stuffed in corner somewhere- as a matter of fact, those are gone too.

They're ALL GONE!

And the best part is that this doesn't feel like a passing phase- you know how you start some newfangled "program" and you stick with it for a few weeks or months and then you just kind of gradually slide back into your old habits? I don't think this is that because it hasn't felt like work. To be honest, I've barely noticed I'm doing it. Once I set up my system it just kind of started...happening. My system replaced The Pile and now when stuff comes in I know exactly where it goes and I put it there. Because I would really like to know where it is when I need it (and not spend fifty million hours searching through The Pile).

Flyer about an event I might want to attend next month? I write a note on my calendar with a *T* and put the flyer in my Tickler file (12 folders labeled by month for things I will need at another time during the year).

Notice about a project for one of my kids? I put it in their project support cubby. Same with son's Scout stuff.

Bills go in bills folder.

Relief Society lesson schedule goes in my Relief Society support cubby.

A place for everything, and everything in its place. Hallelujah.

If any of those things trigger an "I need to..." thought in my head, then I add it to my Next Actions list.

Oh man, is that list important.

If you would like to enjoy this same sense of freedom inside your head, I suggest reading "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" by David Allen. Today I wanted to share with you the first two keys to this awesome system. Here's what Allen says about the first very important key to this freedom: Capture.

"Do you understand yet why getting all your stuff out of your head and in front of you makes you feel better? Because you automatically renegotiate your agreements with yourself when you look at them, think about them, and either act on them that very moment or say, 'No, not now.' Here's the problem: it's impossible to renegotiate agreements with yourself that you can't remember you made! 

"The fact that you can't remember an agreement you made with yourself doesn't mean that you're not holding yourself liable for it. Ask any psychologist how much of a sense of past and future that part of your psyche has, the part that was storing the list you dumped: zero. It's all present tense in there. That means that as soon as you tell yourself that you should do something, if you file it only in your short-term memory, that part of you thinks you should be doing it all the time. And that means that as soon as you've given yourself two things to do, and filed them only in your head, you've created instant and automatic stress and failure, because you can't do them both at once, and that (apparently significant) part of your psyche will continue to hold you accountable. 

"But what are all those things in your in-tray? Agreements you've made or at least implicitly accepted with yourself- things you somehow have told yourself you should deal with in some way. Your negative feelings are simply the result of breaking those agreements- they're the symptoms of disintegrated self-trust. If you tell yourself to draft a strategic plan, when you don't do it, you feel bad. Tell yourself to get organized, and if you fail to, welcome to guilt and frustration. Resolve to spend more time with your kids and then don't- voila! anxious and overwhelmed."

So once you've captured the stuff, you've implicitly promised yourself you're going to do something with it. Like when your mother-in-law digs up some plants from her garden for you to plant in yours. You agree to take them, which means there needs to be a next action- planting them in YOUR garden. Otherwise, every time you pass by them still sitting cockeyed in those flimsy little black plastic pots on your porch they will drive. you. crazy. (I know this from experience.)

Doing something means you must employ Key #2: Decide on a Next Action (and capture it- write it down).

"You'll invariably feel a relieving of pressure about anything you have a commitment to change or do, when you decide on the very next physical action required to move it forward. Nothing, essentially, will change in the world. But shifting your focus to something that your mind perceives as a doable task will create a real increase in positive energy, direction, and motivation. If you have truly captured all the things that have your attention...decide on the single very next action to take on every one of them. Notice what happens to your energy." 

Here's a perfect example from my life:

Just the other day, I noticed that a flyer had somehow escaped my capture process and had ended up on the white board calendar in the kitchen, held hostage there by a magnet. As it flapped in the slight breeze from the open front door one morning, I realized it was bugging me because I hadn't made any decisions about it. The flyer was for an ice cream social yearbook signing party at my kids' school. My son wanted to attend the party. I had already put the event on the calendar, but the flyer wanted me to DO something, and it was going to be there flapping in the wind until I DID it.

What the heck did it want me to do?

Well, when I read it I discovered that there were two things:

1. Sign up to volunteer to help out at the party. Seeing as I would have 3 other little ones to deal with at home (I was planning on having a neighbor take him to the party) this was a no-go.

2. Bring something for the ice cream- the assigned item for the 5th graders was cherries.

I made myself think for a moment. A decision must be made: Do I want to contribute cherries? Sure, I could do cherries. I decided I would do cherries and wrote it under "Errands" on my Next Actions list. While I was at it I put "Call Shari about taking T to party" under my "Phone Calls" heading.

I took another look at the flyer and noticed that it only needed to be returned if I was volunteering, so I tossed it into the trash. Ta-da! Flyer dealt with. Done.

A few days later my husband had to run out to the store for a few things for a project he was doing and asked if I needed him to pick up anything while he was out. "Why yes!" I said. "Here's the list." I jotted down everything under "Errands" that could be picked up at the store he was going to, including cherries, and handed it to him. When he got home I placed the cherries in my son's backpack and that was that. It was off my brain.

It is decidedly lovely to get things off your brain. Especially if they're as trivial as cherries for an elementary ice cream social. Yet, when we let stuff hover around in there- dumb, unimportant stuff (our brains can't differentiate the dumb and unimportant from the essential and important)- our minds don't function so well. That stuff shows up at the most inconvenient times- when we're trying to write, when we're trying to sleep, when we're trying to spend time having FUN with our kids. 

So today, my dear Mormon Mommy Writers, I would like to encourage you to CAPTURE all that stuff floating around in your head and in your environment (flyers and whatnot) and make a NEXT ACTIONS list based on decisions you make regarding those things- what needs to happen next? Those two simple things will start to relieve a lot of pressure in your head.

And then go read "Getting Things Done." Because it's awesome.

What a Mess!!!

It's funny how I think that everything I write on my blog needs to be profound or, at the very least, entertaining. I've gotten to the point where I can't find anything at all to write about because my life is too ordinary and boring. I sit here for hours wondering what to write about and nothing comes. I try to gain inspiration from reading other blogs and still NOTHING.

So, I've decided to just throw out whatever is on my mind at the moment. Today that means CLUTTER. Some have the clutter of life on their mind which keeps them from writing and I have clutter in my office. Oh, man . . . do I have clutter in my office. So before I write another word on my novel, I have to clean and organize.

I've been spending the last two days cleaning out my office. It wouldn't be so bad (or at least that's what I tell myself) if it weren't also my library, craft room, sewing room, scrapbook room and general "throw it in there if you can't find somewhere else to put it" room. What a mess!

In the process of cleaning, I've also been organizing everything. I have all my books in catagories on the shelves. All my blank notebooks and writing paper organized on another and my reference books at arms length. I've also sent 5-6 big garbage bags to the dumpster and have a pile in my garage ready for Deseret Industries. I think I'm doing pretty good.

As I move closer and closer to the dreaded closet, I realize how much stuff I've hoarded "just in case I might need it someday."  How do you part with things like that? I mean, who wouldn't save that beautiful picture frame, even though it's broken. I just might fix it some day. It will look nice in the box on the shelf with the 25 other picture frames I have stored there.

And then there's a box for everything. For some reason I think I need to save the box everything came in. Why? I certainly don't need the box my hand mixer came in, especially since I don't have that mixer anymore. I know what you're thinking--I'm a hoarder, right?  Ahem . . . well, maybe with some things, but the truth is, my house is pretty clean. I hate clutter, which is why it all filters back into this one room. UGH!

So, just for kicks and giggles, tell me about your embarrassing spot in the house. Is it a closet? The garage? The shed? Or is it under your bed? Or under the sink in your kitchen? I'd really love to know I'm not alone.

Back to cleaning. I've got to get this done so I can sit at my computer and dream up something else that needs my attention. Am I avoiding my novel?  Nah!