Filed under: Family
Company’s coming.
I remember reading a funny essay once by Anna Quindlen on “putting up a good front” the way women do. My mom called it “a lick and a promise,” and as a kid I always wondered who was being promised what. Now, of course, I know full well that it’s promising oneself to do a better job later even when the pressure’s off.
My daughter, on the other hand, wanted to put on a good back: the laundry room, the bathroom, the back areas of the house. So while I was at the doctor’s, she spread everything out of there into the living and family rooms and started sorting. Old towels and sheets vs newer, etc etc., what ought to be tossed, and do we need the XL twin sheets now that the XL twin bed is gone?
All that needed to happen, but, timing, child…
She was working where I had planned to be cleaning. Well, but that stuff did need to be done too, true.
Mom, what do you want to do with this?
Huh! I thought I’d given all of that rambouillet fleece I’d had carded and combed to the local Boy Scouts for stuffing in their shoes during long hikes–the mill had totally botched it. My fine wool had come back with neps and pills and spinning-wise, it was just a mess, but the Boy Scouts were ecstatic.
There were two bags of it? I still have one? I do? Anyone planning a long hike? Looking at the amount left, we’re talking Grand Canyon here.
Although I knew better than to take a picture of the living room mid-day to prove it.
13 Comments so far
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Oh, I so understand!!! I plan on “thinning out” while on vacation the week between the holidays. I prefer to visit someone’s home is a little messy…makes me feel at home. I want to see magazines, plants, knitting, books, etc. laying around that tells me a lot about that person’s life. I never notice dust, etc.
Comment by Joansie 12.11.09 @ 5:51 amHow sweet of her to get into this… Although, as you say, the timing is off.
I suppose you’ll be able to sleep better knowing that if people snoop around, your linen is organized! hahahaha
Comment by Suzanne in Mtl 12.11.09 @ 6:18 amDoesn’t it feel good to go through all that stuff and toss it out?! My son was on a cleaning high after reworking his room and was about to put some blankets in the hall linen closet when he couldn’t find the room. He asked my permission to sort through the stuff and, let me just say that together he and I filled two queen sized blankets with garbage! And I still had a bagful of linens to donate to Goodwill! Where did all that junk come from and why was I saving it?
Comment by Jody M 12.11.09 @ 6:24 amI LOVE getting rid of stuff. Less clutter makes it easier to see the nice things I do have. And it saves me from having to burrow through a closet to find something.
(Hmmmm….maybe I should de-clutter a bit this weekend….)
Comment by (formerly) no-blog-rachel 12.11.09 @ 6:52 amMaybe daughter would like to come help me declutter after the first of the year?
Comment by Channon 12.11.09 @ 8:44 amI wish you had taken a picture. I would love to see that you are human. When mine gets worse, before it gets better, I think I am the only one.
Comment by sherry in idaho 12.11.09 @ 9:02 amHow about using it as thrums for mittens? Or stuffing for stuffed animals? I hear Squirrels like wool….
Comment by Michelle 12.11.09 @ 10:51 amJoansie had it right — a slightly messy home is more comfortable. Cliff and I are having a visit tomorrow from a nephew and his wife, and are we rushing around cleaning? Naaah.
Fun –
A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like: “We used to skate outside on a pond. I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the woods.” The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this in. At last she said, “I sure wish I’d gotten to know you sooner!”
Comment by Don Meyer 12.11.09 @ 10:53 amI do the same thing! When I need to be puttin’ on the dog, I get buried in the depths of the doghouse rootin’ out old bones. It’s a brain thing..I bet she’s a genius!
Comment by Toni Smoky-Mountains 12.11.09 @ 11:06 amI am decluttering now myself.
I am hoping to make my former studio into the stash room, PLUS still have room for Oscar to do his computer work.
I have thrown away a lot of stuff, more stuff to go.
That wool would make fabulous stuffing. For a pillow, a dog bed, etc. Or maybe a little pillow for your back or bum? I have taken to using wool as my stuffing of choice and it lasts a long time. Hopefully it will find a home that way!
Comment by Joanne 12.11.09 @ 3:42 pmMust be something in the air…we, too, need to spiff up for company tomorrow. While there’s sweeping and mopping needing to be done, my sweetie decided it was time to sort through his backlog of 6 or 8 months of magazines! Ah, it will all be well and good. Eventually.
Comment by Debbie 12.11.09 @ 3:50 pmwe always called it a lick and a promis as well. I never thought anything of it until I used the term to my husband, andhe looked at me like I had three heads.
He didn’t get it.
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