Being pregnant with baby number four really gave me some thoughts on how to maintain a clean house when you are really sick for the first months, really tired for the next few months and really immobilized for the last few months. I really hate clutter and mess. (That is a lot of reallys, but they are
really necessary, really.) I feel like it inhibits my creativity. Doesn't a clean kitchen feel like it beckons you to cook? (Right after I finish cleaning it, I stay out of it because I want it to last, but if my husband leaves a clean kitchen for me--it beckons.) I think it happened when I was a kid too. A clean floor or table is so much easier to play on because you have room to spread out and just enjoy focusing on a project. So what I am trying to say is that while I love getting creative, if I have to clean first, or if I just don't have the energy to complete the project and put it away after, I am less likely to start anything.
One of the things I like is scrap booking or making memory books, whichever you prefer to call it. It requires a lot attention and spreading out though. For a meticulous person, like me, it is fun, but slow work. I have a nice baby album I made when I was 12 because my mom gave me my baby pictures and scrapbook materials (like the acid free paper and acid free glue and such). And I have a nice wedding album because I worked on it while we were still newly wed and kid free. After we had our first baby I made one more book for my mom as a Christmas gift because I knew she liked the idea of scrap books, but she never has time to do it. It helped that I had friends that had ladies night for this exact activity, but it has been a long time since I have been to one of those.
Then I just collected stuff for a really (that word again) long time. I got so busy with work, and other projects that I just kept putting things in a box to deal with later. Like for the next time one of my friends hosted a scrapbook party. (palm to forehead) Do you have any boxes like that? They become these monsters hiding in your closet. They are nagging at you day after day to do something about them, but you just keep feeding them and hoping they will stay quiet and not pop out and scream at you when you have company or an emergency and need to find that one thing that disappeared in the clutter for eternity. When my oldest began school, I became painfully aware of how quickly those monsters were going to multiply. (
Like Miss Hannigan's closet) Now it wasn't just birthday cards and occasional pictures and letters, it was valentine cards, and school crafts and I was sure I was going to buried within a year. There was just no way I could keep it all, and no way I could catch up. Then I had a brilliant idea. Stop being a perfectionist! This bears repeating: STOP BEING A PERFECTIONIST!
Do I have to print out all the pictures off the computer and put them with the birthday cards? NO.
Do I have to put cutesy decorations on every page? NO.
Do I have to glue everything in place? NO, NO, NO!
Really?
Really, really.
I just need a notebook and plastic sheet protectors and sometimes a piece of paper to quickly glue something in place. I realized that acid-free has become common place now. So I got to work and now we have a policy. When I get something special to save, I pop it in the notebook right away. Even for my new baby, I displayed his sonogram pics on the fridge for a few weeks and then glued them on some colored paper and put them in a new binder. Birthday cards are displayed for a couple days and then I just pop them in the plastic sleeve. I put them in unfolded so you can see it with out having to pull it out. Some are too big to do that but again, it doesn't have to be perfect! I also keep extra empty sheet protectors in the notebooks so I don't have to dig one out to put it in.
My oldest is nine so he has a few books already. I even cleaned a monster box out of my closet a couple weeks ago. It had a mixture of things I saved to scrapbook later from about 2004-2007. My husband and I have notebooks too. We had a lovely blackout a couple weeks ago and my husband and I enjoyed perusing through his box that had been sitting in the garage in the romantic candlelight. I had not known it was even out there! A monster in the garage. He pulled out some of the things he felt were just clutter and we kept the rest. They now reside in a brand new 2 inch binder from Costco. It will make a great family night to show our kids Daddy's handwriting and spelling sentences from second grade.
My next purchase might be a couple of those clear plastic pencil holders, to store the bulky items that won't lie flat, like medallions, pins or other keepsakes.
