Tuesday Clutter

Today started again, same story, but like ‘Ground Hog day’ normal morning stress of getting kids to school and breakfast club. This is my first day off by myself in weeks, I may actually get some of the house tidied before the kids make it a mess again.

At the weekend I put some of the kids art work in boxes and put it in our loft. I wondered what percentage of lofts are utilised to their full capacity? Ours is stacked with boxes as you enter it.  There is loads of space all around for boxes but we have very few loft boards up there and I don’t want to be climbing over all the roof joists.  The danger of falling through the ceiling scares me. A lot of these boxes are full of my childhood memories, a few are my husband’s. Behind the wall of boxes are more boxes, towards the back of the loft are my books. Months ago I brought down my ‘Enid Blyton’ and childhood books for the children. I am hoping my 5 year old will enjoy reading about ‘St Clares’ and ‘Malory Towers’ one day, hopefully my 7 year old will soon read the ‘Secret Seven’ and the ‘Famous five’. I have books by the ‘Pullen-Thompson’ sister’s – Pony books. ‘The Silver Brumby’, ‘My Friend Flicka’, ‘The Hardy Boys’, ‘The Three Investigators’ by ‘Alfred Hitchcock’, the list goes on. Some of these are still hiding. When we moved here back in 2011 all my books were put in boxes for the move, my ‘Stephen King’, ‘Dean Koontz’, ‘James Patterson’, ‘Roald Dahl’ amongst others.  These boxes then got put straight in the loft and yes they are behind this box wall. My beloved book case is now full of my husband’s Dvds, I wonder to myself how I let this happen.

I am thinking our loft is probably normal, there are plenty of hoarders out there, the things you keep just in case. The photo above shows our pushchair, my daughter has not used that for over a year, so why have I kept it? Answer, I can’t bear to part with it. We also have the pram and a Moses basket, all sentimental. One day maybe we will be able to board the loft properly, then I might be able to get to my books again, somehow the dvds need to be evicted as they are never watched. I am not very good at donating books to charity shops I know I should, but I reread them and enjoy them all over again.  The ride on toy in the picture was for my son’s 1st birthday, it is Mickey Mouse. It is staying as I cannot bear to part with its happy memories. Maybe one day a grandchild will enjoy it.

We now have a bookcase on our landing full of books that are wanting to be read. I’m sure after my 5 year old reads ‘Jill’s Gymkhana’ by Ruby Ferguson and other pony books the pestering will start for riding lessons and a pony.  She is not having a pony and I guess we will ride that storm when it happens. I was pony mad as a child, hence the quantity of pony books,  I desperately wanted one, thankfully my parents said no, I do not think I could handle the early mornings mucking out the stables, the grooming and everything that goes with having a pony. The novelty would soon wear off for me.

One day I am hoping to see my children enjoy these books as much as I did and I am sure there are more in our loft. We also have membership to the library where the kids love to scream, shout, climb the bookcases and run around.  “Sshh” and “quiet” just doesn’t work with them. People know when my two kids are around.

Anyway I am now going to sort out the washing again, the machine is already on but I have more washing to put away. I need to start tidying the house before it is made a mess again later and continue with the jobs that are expected to be done by mum.