The Irony Is Not Lost On Me

So almost a month (gasp) ago I told you guys all about my entryway and why I live in constant fear that someone will come to my door and see the mess and clutter.  I vowed to do something about it.  I was a girl on a mission. I had all these fabulous ideas in my head and I was going to tackle that entryway.

Yeah.  About that.

A lack of money, procrastination, and other life obligations kinda got in the way of that.

I did pick up some scrapbook paper and Mod Podge to spruce up the shoe thingie.  The actual Mod Podging has not commenced however.

The dog crate problem was partially solved, at least in my head anyway, when I found this article on how to hide a dog crate.  Amazing what searching Google for "how to hide a dog crate" will find you.  The remaining problem is for me to A) get the table, and B) figure out how to keep the dogs from being able to reach the fabric.  They kinda like to pull any fabric they can snag with their claws into their crate and shred it.  This might not work well if I have something pretty sitting on top of the table.  So there is some sort of crate retrofit in order if this is going to work.  Once again it just takes money.

The one issue I did manage to solve was what to do with all the hats, gloves, etc. that were overflowing in a  too small plastic tote on top of the shoe thing.

Yes, my friends, that is an over the door shoe rack holding all the hats, gloves, and scarves.  It is not, but is remarkably similar to, the over the door shoe rack some of you might remember me ranting about way back in December of 2008.  Now just so you know, THAT shoe rack was given to me in December of 2005 and even though I had no use for it, I held on to it (because it was a gift and hoping I'd find something I could use it for).  I finally gave up and put it in a garage sale this past January  so I would have less to move to Michigan, and now, just as I lamented about in this post, as soon as I got rid of it, I needed it.  Grr.

This past weekend I went to the store and spent $12.99 on this over the door shoe rack.  I came home and put it on the door.  I put all the hats and what not in it.  I proudly showed the hubby what I had done.

Hubby: "What is that?"
Me:  "That would be my mad home organizational skillz"
Hubby:  "And what EXACTLY did you USE to achieve this organization?"
Me: "an over the door shoe rack?"
Hubby:  "A what???"
Me:  "An over the door shoe rack"
Hubby: "You'd better not let your mom see that"
Me:  "I know"

My people

Ever watched the show Hoarders and thought OMG, how do those people live like that? Or OMG that's so gross? I watch that show and think OMG I'm one major traumatic life event from being like that. Now don't get me wrong, my house is no where near what's on that show. I'm in no danger of being evicted or losing my kids, I don't have vermin, and there aren't piles of stuff as tall as me in my house. In my garage it's another story. I mainly have a clutter and organization problem, but I do have an unhealthy attachment to stuff.

I once had a therapist tell me that clutter in your home is an outward expression of clutter in your mind. I can see that. I know that both stress me out. I'd love to live in a home where everything was tidy and just so, where there was a place for everything and everything was in it's place, but I have major problems with putting things away when I'm done with them, and having more things than I have places. My garage is the catch all for this stuff.

Now I know I don't NEED all the stuff. I can tell you that there is stuff out there that has not been unpacked since we moved from California five and a half years ago, but every time I sort through the boxes I find reasons that I can't let it go. Either I'm worried that I'll need it as soon as I don't have it anymore, or I feel it's worth too much to just sell in a garage sale or give to goodwill.

With our move to Michigan just four months away, again I'm faced with thinning out my possessions to make them easier to move over 2000 miles. Last week the hubby and I went through the garage and had a garage sale. We didn't get through all the stuff in the garage, mainly because there wasn't enough room to work, but we did get through quite a bit. I managed to sort about 12 tote buckets for the garage sale and whatever was left after the sale went to goodwill. I gave one trash bag full of clothes and toys to my friend, and I have a box of stuff to put on ebay. That was supposed to be my project for this week, but I haven't gotten to it yet. Ok, so I have a procrastination problem too.

I'm totally stressing about the enormity of this move and have set a goal of sorting and getting rid of stuff every week to make it go more smoothly. So far this week, I've done zippo towards this goal. I suppose I know what I need to do this weekend.