80 Days with Judy - Part 2

Mom had her knee surgery on May 31 and after several days of goofy behavior post-operative delirium she is now progressing nicely in a Senior Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy Center. Her knee looks very good and after having three previous knee surgeries, she has declared this one "beautiful".  While Mom has been busy rehabbing her knee and relaxing, I have continued to downsize, declutter, and organize her house - preparing for the possibility of listing the house for sale in the fall.

As mentioned in a prior post, over the past few weeks we have donated boxes and boxes and bags upon bags of clothing and household items, just so we can see what is in her closets.

Simultaneous to downsizing, the community my parents live in experienced major flooding.  Thankfully we were able to donate several boxes and bags to the local church who collected items for the flood victims.

With all the cleaning and sorting we have been doing, one room began to collect the "extras", things Mom decided to keep "just in case" or that she didn't want to part with "just yet", but didn't know where to store them, so they ended up in her office. 

In here 

Office Before

You may be thinking, "How did you get in there to clean?"

I tip-toed very carefully, hoping I wouldn't trip.  

Hoping I wouldn't fall - I didn't have Mom's life line on me.

Hoping I could finish the project without hurting my back, within the limited time I allowed myself during this trip back to her house.

TaDAAAAA!!!!!

Amazing!

I hardly threw anything out!!!  Just a few more pens.

I found a "home" for most of the items by grouping and organizing office supplies, books, CD's, and pens. Now everything has a place. Including the 20 dispensers of packing tape. I created a mailing station for all the big envelopes, tape, mailing labels, etc.  There is still much work to be done in this room but for now, we can move around and find what we need.

And now for the pens............

Pencils, pens, highlighters - OH MY! - placed neatly on top of the
mailing station and children's bins of crayons

These 7 containers of pens, pencils, highlighters, extra lead and erasers are what is left over of weeks of sorting through pens and weeding out the ones that don't work. We tossed away the equivalent of 2 containers and gave away another 2 containers of pens that still worked.  This doesn't count the two BINS of crayons, markers, and pencils that are marked "Grandchildren", or the red box of crayons that are Mom's.

Or the cups of pens on the filing cabinet in the kitchen or the drawers in every room.  Like I said, we still have more to do.

 But for now - it is done.

Family Tree information

Sewing notions

Mom's red crayon box - out of the reach of little hands

Mom's puzzles - she will never be bored

I pick on my Mom for all the pens she has accumulated in the last few years (Oh believe me we have downsized and SHE has downsized her collection many times over the years) but it made me think. Just for fun - I challenge everyone who reads this to gather all your pens, pencils, erasers, highlighters, markers and crayons together in one place.  Now see how many you have and let me know. 

Decluttering and Downsizing

If you have read my posts all along, you will know that I spent a lot of time early in my "sabbatical" decluttering my house and downsizing the junk we had accumulated over the years. It was looking pretty good, and then my son moved his stuff back home.  Simultaneously, I started helping my Mom downsize her many collections.

Take my Mom's books.  I spent many months reading, sorting, dusting, and giving away piles and piles and piles of books from every corner of my house.  Most of them I read but some I discovered I had either started and couldn't quite get into, or just wasn't interested in that kind anymore. My shelves were dust free, orderly, and I could see what color the shelf was for a change! I had room for every book ON A SHELF! There was a point in time when no book lived in my house without a home of its own, rather than stuck in a box or bag or cornered in a room unable to breath.

I was so proud of myself.

So why, when I am so at peace, would I want to bring more books home from my Mom's while I am helping her find such order on her bookshelves? Last fall, I helped her downsize her large collection of books, discard old magazines, and sort through boxes and bags and more boxes and bags of books, puzzle books, and magazines, only to find my shelves cluttered again! Since my Dad died, we have sorted and tossed and given away even more things, including more books. Her shelves are dust free and looking darn good now.  And mine are over crowded again and as I write this post, I have a bin of books sitting on the floor to my right, waiting to be loaded into my car to take home.

Dang!

When I was first unemployed on sabbatical, I was thrilled to have the time to read.  I had been looking forward to a time when that's all I had to do.  Of course I had hoped it would be a few more years down the road but since I had nothing better to do (at first), why not spend my day reading? But now I am getting more contracts and taking care of my Mom.  In a sense, I am back at work.  And I have a kindle now so I shouldn't be collecting as many hardcover books.

I need to learn to let books go on without me.