Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Mysteries Solved (and other perks of cleaning the basement)

This past Christmas I could not find our tree skirt anywhere, and believe me I turned the storage room upside down with my efforts. Ah well, we just wrapped batting around the base of the tree and pretended it was snow.

I tackled the storage room today (the entire basement really) and put it to rights. It looked like a 72 hour kit threw up in there. Two large trash bags and one box for charity later, I still hadn't seen a trace of that skirt. Well! I moved on to the kids' rooms.

I actually became my father. I did the thing I swore I never would and I piled everything from the floor and messy drawers on their beds. And then I told them they couldn't do anything until their beds were made and the room was tidied. Much wailing and teeth gnashing ensued. But! Their rooms are clean (for today, at least).

Still, no skirt. And really, I'd forgotten all about it. That is until I moved on to the family room and straightened the cupboard at the bottom of the hutch. One of the kids must have been using it for a hideout and had stashed the skirt and a throw pillow in there.

I decided to move on to greener pastures and tidy up the scrap booking supplies that reside at the bottom of my closet. Disclaimer: I do not actually scrapbook, but I think about it sometimes. And by sometimes, I mean never.

The girls like to raid the stash to make cards and it was in a horrible jumble. Without even the aid of a single Dr. Pepper, I plowed through it, straightening four boxes of supplies and bonus! discovered a pair of shoes I thought I'd never see again hiding at the back of it all.

I have vacuumed and dusted this place to within an inch of my sanity. My brain hurts, my back hurts, and I really need a Dr. Pepper, some high-quality chocolate (these measly chocolate chips just aren't cutting it), a hot bath and a good book.

What I really want is to hit the beach, and if I didn't have to drive 12 hours to do it I'd be there tomorrow.