Stuff and Junk

Ryan was out of town for a few days. Ok, more than a few days. I guess it was more like 11 days. Time to go to China AND Las Vegas for business. I know! Anyway, while Ryan is gone, I usually try to do some kind of organizational project that makes a big huge mess and then I don’t really have to worry about getting it cleaned up at the end of the day. Not that he would complain, but my projects sometimes involve rearranging our bedroom, cleaning out the closet, etc, and I tend to pile a bunch of stuff on the bed, and it’s just nice to not have to move that pile to the floor so that both of us can sleep at night. I also don’t mind that I don’t have to cook while he’s gone. I mean, I still cook for the kids, but our dinners tend to be more kid friendly. You know, the chicken nugget, macaroni and cheese, cheese on tortilla type dinners that the kids like, but I don’t really serve for family dinners that often. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Julia Childs here, but I do usually make dinner every night, and by dinner, I mean a main dish with some kind of fruit and veg.

I didn’t take pictures, but I did rearrange our bedroom again this week. Moved the big old dresser, cleaned out drawers, sent a whole bunch of stuff to DI, organized the shoes, etc. As I was in the thick of that job, I realized that my makeup drawer was pretty out of control.

I couldn’t throw it all out, of course, but I did get rid of a lot of old makeup. I realized that the blush I use the most is about 3 years old and was from Costco. I still use it! I had some very old mascara and some foundation that I’ve never worn because it has a smell, and I couldn’t stand having a smell on my face all day. I would always wonder what that SMELL was, not realizing it was right on and under my nose. Out it goes. I still have too much makeup, but at least it’s corralled and contanerized, and the eye stuff is no longer fraternizing with the cheek stuff and the lip stuff.

I just tackled one of the “junk drawers” in the kitchen today. Ugh. Disney park hopper passes from our vacation in 2002? Countless pens and pencils, googly eyes? What? I did find a really cute pair of purple sunglasses that I don’t ever remember buying, so score one there. Primary music leader helps, stickers that say “I led the music in Singing time”, and even Cole’s scout card saying he had earned his bobcat badge (not the badge, just the card). Now most of that is in the trash.

If only I could get every area of the house cleaned and purged and cleaned out more often than once every 5 years!