Chaotic Thoughts

It is raining again and I have been inside too long. My thoughts are so erratic. My son took the dog out for a potty break in the rain and now the house smells like wet dog. Yummy! I need to go grocery shopping today but I am still in my jammies and well... the rain. I find that when I am in the midst of organizing, it is utter chaos. That is when I want to give up and ultimately when I have to push through because the space always ends up better than how it started. (Can you tell I have not yet finished organizing the kids' room?) 

I want a house with perfect order. 

I know such a thing doesn't exist, but I still dream of it. I am not talking always tidy and spotlessly clean. What I am saying is... well, I don't quite know how to explain it. When I go to get a light bulb, I want all the light bulbs to be in the same place. When we have guests over, I want all the sheets, pillows and blankets all in one central location, not spread throughout the house in different closets and bins. I want all my winter items stored together so I know right where to get that one perfect hat out on an unusually cold day. These seem like simple no-brainer kinds of things to want and even more they should be easy to achieve. And I am achieving them, but slowly. Every time I organize, I refine my system to get rid of unnecessary items, and better store the ones I keep. It just seems like a never-ending process. Can you see the analogy I might draw from all of this? Not today. Today I am going to revel in the chaos of the situation. Living in an apartment limits what I have to work with, in that I don't want to spend money on something I can't take with me to the next place, so I have to be creative. I am good at being creative which is maybe part of why I enjoy organizing, also that I am a bit of a control freak might add to it. 

Oh and did I mention that I strongly dislike the paper factor of life? So much paper comes into our house every month. I have changed nearly every bill or statement to paperless and it still pours in. It comes in magazines, junk mail, church information, school work, etc. And we store it for years in boxes until the blessed day comes that enough time has passed to allow us to shred it. We keep papers from our childhoods and our children's childhoods. I see all of these things as valid, still in excess they are a nuisance to me. Receipts drive me crazy too! 

We just have too much stuff. I need to move to Italy and start over in a little villa somewhere.

Thing is, with everything we have I don't feel like we live an excessive life. There is just so much stuff that comes with life. If you live in a climate with different seasons you have two different wardrobes. If you have any kind of hobbies ie: camping, fishing, sewing, baking, gardening, quilting, woodworking, sports, cooking (just to name a few of ours) there is all the gear that goes with each one. Add kids to the mix and the stuff multiplies like crazy. Then if you read books, watch movies, play games, etc. there is a whole heap of new things. And finally if you are in a transitionary state, like we are, then you have things in storage for when you move to a more permanent life. It all takes up space and I am constantly trying to become mistress of my domain with exhausting results. 

I hope I am not alone on this. I know there are many of you out there who have achieved a higher state of perfection in your domains. I applaude you. It is a challenge for me, but one that enjoy trying to conquer. I figure the month that we are ready to pack-up and move, I will feel like everything is just perfect. Life is like that sometimes.