Monday July 20, 2015  MOVING DAY

But we’re not going anywhere!  Or, have we become hoarders?   Oh God, I pray that never happens to me.  As I sit here at the kitchen table, (I’ve been displaced from my kitchen counter) and I look around me, it appears that hoarders is exactly what we have become.  We are having our carpets cleaned tomorrow and everything possible had to be moved from the sunroom, the formal dining room, and the living room.  All the small stuff which means the things on surfaces as well.  I’m here looking at two wicker chairs, a hardback chair, a small, but tall table, a humidor, lamps, a wicker shelf, a wooden plant stand, two kitchen chairs stacked on top of one another, an old rickety table that most people would probably not keep in their barn, pretty round stackable boxes, baskets, and floral arrangements, clocks, and books and more books and more books and magazines, and desk paraphernalia (that which sits on the old rickety table that I use as an antique desk), do dads and nick knacks with four months of dust on them and lots of pillows and more baskets and fake ferns and  wandering Jew and a big dictionary.  Lots of other places in the house are serving as temporary resting places for the rest of the stuff.  We must finish emptying the living room and then do our dressing room also.  All the dressing room furniture will go into the spare bedroom.  We are packed up for the carpet cleaners!   One good thing I am happy about.  Before I left on my trip I gave all my living plants away to a friend of mine.  She has a way with making plants just want to live.  Mine were some pretty big ones. She told me I could have them back when I returned but I think I like the empty spaces.

Hopefully when I replace everything I will replace less than what I took out.  This is the beginning!  The beginning of emptying out what we don’t’ need.  The only problem is…I NEED more book shelves downstairs!

After the carpets are dry I must replace (and rid the dust) what we NEED in order to get ready for the cleaning lady that I splurged on.  Hey, remember I having surgery Monday, company the following Sunday, and a house that had a man living in it alone for four months.  What can I say.  At least I know what four months of dust looks like.  And if I am truthful, it is probably six month’s worth because I don’t think I had time to dust the last two months I was at home.  Now if that doesn’t taint me, I don’t know what will.  Sometimes when you write a blog the truth just comes out whether you want it to or not.  I stayed in some very, very clean and perfect houses on my trip.  They were and probably still are beautiful and orderly and perfect.  Well, if truth be known, mine isn’t that way.  It is clean and livable and healthy, but it does tend to get a little out of hand in the areas I live in.  My library for one, my office for the other.  It is a “healthy clutter”, the kind that would drive my sister up a wall so to speak.

I am truly hoping that once I have finished with the remnants of photographic work I will be able to reclaim my house of yesteryear.  YESTERYEAR (a mighty fine word) my house was in order, clean, decluttered, and organized and ran smoothly.  I got cured!  I started my own business.  That took care of Miss Perfection!  And happier I am if truth be known.  I love my book clutter.  I just love my books.  If I had a bucket list it would be to read every book I own before I die.

And cookbooks are one of my favorite kind of books.  The kinds with the big colored pictures.  I read cookbooks like novels.  They fascinate me and tell me so much about the era of which they were written just by reading the ingredients.  So, even cookbooks are my friends.  I brought home lots of books from my travels.  I found several out of print books that I have been looking for as I foraged through Goodwill’s, St. Vincent de Pau’s, and other thrift shops.  I always go to the book sections first and peruse looking for certain titles and certain authors.  Well, until I get my bookshelves built I will need to stop bringing more books home because I have no place to put them.  And before I get my book shelves built I must finish going through all my photo studio equipment and props and have a sale.  I have lots of backdrops if anyone is interested!  Just thought I get a plug in.  My new library will be in one of the shooting areas of  my former studio.

So you can see that things will start slowly, due to sick husband, my surgery, company coming, carpet cleaners, house cleaner coming, window guy, studio demise, and old age.  And oh yes, because of all the food I have to keep making every week from my farm boxes.  Summer is not the time to work on a house.  We have a long winter coming and maybe then????…..

WHAT DO I DO?

By Kathleen Martens

July 20, 2015

What in this room do I need?

Chairs and lamps and books and clocks?

Can I not live without all the extra

And store them away in a box?

Life gets messier as each year ends

For old age is not your friend.

Why did I collect all these do-dads?

Because at the time it was the going fad.

It no longer serves the purpose it did.

It is forgotten and no longer even seen,

But the one thing I must always do,

If find a way to keep it all clean.

Move it around from place to face,

Because  I can’t stand it in my space

When that happens, what do I do?

I go out and buy something new.

Okay, guys, this poem was written to make it all rhyme.  I really don’t go out and buy something new anymore.  Instead I go to the thrift shops and look for that bargain book.  A USED book so it is no longer new!

I must go and empty out the dressing room of all my fine décor and accent pieces and mismatched everything.  I just love my mismatched house.  I actually even like my clutter, just not all in one room.  Even as I sit here Dave is bringing in more.  He can walk a little better now and needs to get up and walk around every little while.  When His leg  starts hurting he stops and elevates his foot.

We must get up early to get to his early doctor appointment.  Hey, Joyce if you are reading this just know that I have not gotten up at 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. even once since I have been home.  I listened to your advice!  Before leaving on my trip my normal get up time was 5:00 a.m. or a little before.  And that was without an alarm.  Things have changed a bit now.  First the two hour time change when I arrived home caused me to need to sleep a little later.  I just don’t have a schedule anymore.  I am sure that will change (I hope) but until then I am just rolling with the flow.  It is sort of nice!

It is 8:45 p.m.  The dryer buzzer is wooing me, my eyelids are tempting me to bed, and the work is beckoning me from afar.   So what will it be?

Good night friends.

P.S.  This is one of those blogs that won’t get proofread until tomorrow.  Sorry folks but I am just too sleepy!