Mama said there'd be days like this...

I kind of enjoy Monday mornings like these.

Its rainy and foggy, though the weather man promises it'll be about 50 degrees today. We're due to get thunder storms throughout the day. (They're threatening to postpone the Brewer's season opener against the Cubs, boo hoo.)

I like to wake up slowly in the morning, and this weather allows me to sort of slink to the office under cover of grey skies. I can drink my coffee while being embraced by the dull light that filters in my office window . (Who am I kidding? While I have more seniority than most in my department, I'm stuck in an office, the walls of which don't reach the ceiling, that doesn't have any windows at all. In order to SEE daylight, I need to walk out of my office and around the corner. But I digress.)

But what this weather also means is that the start of re-siding of my house will most likely be delayed. Again. The work men were due to start last Monday, but we got 6" of snow. I can hardly blame them - its not safe for anyone to be on a huge metal ladder in a snow storm OR a thunderstorm. What it means in my mind, though, is that we're still no closer to actually moving this year.

I know that's silly. A delay of a week or so really doesn't set us back. Its just that if the house were actually being worked on, I'd feel like progress was being made.

Lots of other things need to be done to get us ready to move. After nearly eight years in this house, we've collected a lot of stuff. And I'm a keeper. Let's define this further, shall we? I'm not a hoarder by any means, but I like to think that I am recycling somewhat by reusing things. I have a tote in my basement full of gift bags and tissue paper. Going to a birthday party? No need to spend $5 on a new bag. I go down to my stash and re-use a perfectly good (slightly used) gift bag. Its not cheap. Its environmental, people.

I've recently started on the bookshelf. I have an 8' tall bookshelf in my basement (located there simply due to lack of space in the upstairs living quarters) FULL of magazines, books and college textbooks I thought were so useful I'd want to reference in the future. But if I haven't gone down to even VISIT this bookshelf in the past two years, I obviously don't need any of it. This past week I've recycled two large grocery bags full of magazines and given away 18 books. (Some folks in my office collect used books every year at this time and resell them - the money made goes to the United Way.) I'm getting there, slowly but surely.

And then there are the totes. My oh my do I love my totes. Christmas decorations, baby clothes, wedding memorabilia - they're all packed away in plastic totes, each with a sheet of fabric softener at the top so as to keep away bugs and keep the contents from smelling musty. I think they procreate while we sleep. I cannot possibly own that much STUFF worth keeping. Can I?

Our home is lovely - a 95-year-old duplex in the suburbs, near enough to the city that it takes about 15 minutes to get downtown, and about six blocks from the Farmer's Market, library and the quaint shops of the suburb's downtown area. (Most of Wisconsin looks as if it were made for a postcard.) Our house has tons of beautiful woodwork and a built-in china cabinet with leaded stain glass doors, typical of homes built in this area during that era. (It wouldn't be complete without the stained glass window in the living room; we've got that, too.) But what homes built in 1913 didn't have is closet space. So THAT'S where a lot of our trouble lies.

Over the past eight years I've become queen of, oh, how does the quote go? Fitting eleven gallons of crap in a ten gallon hat? The boys share a room in our home, so in a 10x13' room there is a crib, a fire truck toddler bed, two chests of drawers (again, lack of closet space), a toy box, a pop-up hamper full of toys and a play kitchen. More toys are organized in clear totes (I should invest in Rubbermaid stock) and stored under the crib, and other things (such as swim suits with "floaties" built in and big cars that play music when you press a button*) are stored under the toddler bed.

I'm totally getting off track here (but its my blog and I'll ramble if I want to). My point is, with all this CRAP everywhere I'm left feeling like I don't know where to begin. I'm making a list for my next 337 "Tackle-It Tuesdays" - for as much as I try to keep my home organized to the point of near insanity I have plenty of trouble spots. I went around taking "before" photos of a bunch of them the other day. That left me feeling more overwhelmed than I was to begin with. I mean, who LIVES here?!?

*I have a great idea for a new business - the concept is simple. Take an object that's related to the source of your stress. It may be your husband's big screen TV, the toy your child LOVES that plays "You Can't Touch This" 587 times a day or your Blackberry. Put it in the center of a large room. Don safety glasses. Pick up a weapon of your choice (at my place I'd offer a wide variety of hammers, from sledge to jack, as well as a plethora of bats, tire irons and golf clubs) and whack away at that darned thing until its nothing more than a pile of parts. When you're done, the bar will be open. Come over. Have a drink.