Tag Archives: home

Purging: 112 things in 01/2012!

This year, possibly spurred on by the overwhelming vision of my grandmother’s closet with its hundreds of hats and shoes and evening gowns (which we encountered head-on during our Christmas vacation, in the Wisconsin leg of our trip), my husband decided that we needed to repeat last year’s purging exercise.

And did I say “closet” up there? Because I meant closets.

Plural.

(there’s Heidi’s foot–see it?–disappearing into what appeared to be a wall of scarves; more clothes lie behind)

In fact, in Mama Kitty’s case it may be closetssssss (double squared plural). You’ll only know what I’m talking about if you’ve been there in person and experienced the fashion explosions happening all over the house.

Like the hats in the front hall, which represent not even a fraction of the headgear you will encounter as you wander through the house.

Just to give you a little insight into the Mad Hatter Wonderland of my grandparents’ eccentric and treasure-filled house, there’s even a mannequin in a bathtub in the livingroom.

And a mannequin by the mantel.

And that’s just the livingroom, folks. You don’t want to see the basement. I repeat–you don’t want to see the basement.

Or maybe you do.

Okay, fine.

Here’s the basement.

My husband is exclaiming in bewilderment–possibly something like “What kind of family did I marry into??”

Of course, he’s over 6 years late asking that question.

There comes a point where it’s futile to even ask.

But because I’m all about getting to the bottom of things, I’ll spill the beans. The answer is: you married into a family whose pater familias (Big Jake) has stocked the basement with enough food to feed the entire family for 1 year.

I know where I’ll be if the zombocalypse I’ve been hearing about ever breaks loose: feeding on cans of evaporated milk, popcorn, beans, and dented cans of clam chowder in the basement.

Of course, if the zombies learn how to access the internet, they may be able to track me down based on that disclosure. But then again, I’ve always liked living on the edge.

But I digress! (big time) Remember–exactly one year ago–the 111 things in 1/11 project that my friend Jenny initiated? It all started here . . .

. . . continued here with the emotional roller coaster of clearing out old college papers . . .

. . . and here with the trashing of my beloved but holey lamb socks (among others) . . .

. . . and finally here, with a clean-out of old make-up and defunct cassette tapes.

All in all, I ended up getting rid of about 120 things that I totally didn’t need. Whoopee!

So this year we will purge again! And we’re both looking forward to it. After experiencing a certain degree of materialism in the air during the holidays (if you know what I mean), we felt the need to rid ourselves immediately of as much stuff as possible. Old VHS tapes (those are so last-century), unused kitchen paraphenalia, paper files that are just taking up space, etc. I may even attack my jewelry drawer again, which is once more a tangled, mangled mess.

If any of you would like to engage in this exercise along with me this month, please send me the links to your posts, and I’ll link to your blogs as I write about our whirlwind of de-stuffifying!

It’s going to be satisfying, cleansing, and probably full of silliness.

Love,

Purging Petronilla

Christmas decorating: a confession

I confess!

I’m not a decorator.

I don’t enjoy decorating.

Case in point: I had to set up a tree in my office at work, and this stressed me out much more than the Quickbooks confusion over a mysterious credit memo or that irate customer claiming we sent the wrong products.

That dang Christmas tree had me in cold sweats.

And that is why, in our house, the only attempt at a “Christmas tree” that we have undertaken is . . . well . . . mebbe 2 feet tall?

Here’s my husband with the box . . .

. . . pulling it out of the box . . .

. . . and thar she blows.

Nestled in a corner next to the radiator, poor thing. And with only two ornaments on top–matching silver and gold stars that shed glitter wherever they may go.

I realize that if we have children, we’ll have to obtain a Christmas tree and actually put up garlands or something, because I remember how magical it was to see the house transformed when I was a tot. And a teenager. And heck, it’s kind of magical even now. So I want to provide that same experience for any progeny we may have. Yes, the future does hold more seasonal decorating for this resistant girl, but you know–let’s not think about that right now, because my heart is starting to palpitate strangely fast.

You think I’m joking about those heart palpitations, but I can assure you I’m not.

However, all that said, I am proud to share that this year we strung twinkle lights around the window. My dear husband did the hard work of getting them down from the closet . . .

(actually getting the stuff out is 99% of the battle for me) . . . and believe it or not, I actually had fun putting them up!

Maybe because I got to balance on the window sill and feel like an acrobat, push tacks into the wall and feel like a hooligan.

And I do love lying on the couch and gazing at the lights while Christmas music plays in the background . . . I guess it was worth those 40 minutes of effort.

Right . . . “effort.” Maybe it was actually 10 minutes of effort and 30 minutes of figuring out how to place all the decorations on my own self.

So maybe my whole “I don’t like decorating” thing is just a mental block. Maybe it’s just for lack of actually doing it and tackling the beast. Maybe it’s the idea of decorating that stresses me out, but if I can just get into execution mode, I’ll find there’s an inner decorator waiting to spring forth.

This is probably the most decorated our house has ever been. Maybe next year I’ll go a teensy step further and hang a wreath somewhere.

But let’s not get too crazy!

Do you like to decorate? Does it stress you out or invigorate you? If you’re in the former category, do you have a tried-and-true method for overcoming the stress?