Sunday, May 15, 2011

Organization Weekend...?

Today the quest for tidy cabinets continues, but it wasn't intentional. 

My husband does the grocery shopping because of my foot issue and is a really good sport about it.  He brings our toddler.  I suspect they have a very good time of it.  There's a mechanical horsey at the grocery store outside the checkout.  It's all the motivation my little guy needs.  If they have trouble, I never hear about it.

Despite the detailed grocery list, they bought a little more than my disorganized pantry and tiny refrigerator can support.  I got a little hysterical - perhaps an understatement.  I honestly didn't feel like reorganizing another cabinet.  Not even close, especially after I cleaned the entire lower floor of our house while they were at the store.  I was done but had no choice but to clean it to make room for more. 

My ten-year-old offered to help - maybe I didn't exactly give him a choice, but he was a good sport about it.  I sat on the floor in front of the pantry nearly in tears, completely surrounded by packaged foods, combining boxes and checking expiration dates on the boxes in the cabinet.  My son took the excess downstairs and took care of the garbage.  He even put the empty boxes and bags in the recycling bin without a reminder.  I am so impressed that he kept coming back and didn't ditch me - the path to the overflow shelf downstairs requires him to walk past his Legos and the Wii among other things that could easily lure a ten-year-old away.

We got the whole pantry reorganized with just enough room for almost everything.  Several almost finished boxes of cereal had to go.  We put the cereal on the kitchen table along with some items close to expiration with an "eat me" note on them.  (I also made soup, so there was a soup option for dinner in addition to cereal.)

We also cleaned out the overhead cabinet devoted to band-aids, flashlights, and treats that I don't want the small person to see or reach.  We found several unopened packages of gum that were expired (gum expires?) that I specifically bought for my kids - I have no idea why they were hidden away.  We found random Halloween candy, remains of boxes of candy from the movie theatre that I did intentionally hide, and cans of soup (obviously the work of my husband).  My ten-year-old stuck with me to the end.  I offered him the girl scout cookies that had also been hiding in there - they were still fresh.

I am hoping my day tomorrow doesn't necessarily lead me to overhauling another cabinet or room.  I'm kind of tired.  I want to pick up the novel I wrote and just read it tomorrow and maybe write a new chapter or two this week on the new one I started. 

It's a busy week with the school year ending for my kids.  Because of the rain in April, my son will be playing 8 soccer games in the span of 15 days, which we promised to attend.  My husband is busier than usual at work too.  I think if I can center myself by jumping back into writing, it will help a lot.  I hope so.

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