Rats A Packin’

Yesterday was National Pack Rat Day!      

I bet you didn’t even know…

But I bet you DO know someone who compulsively holds on to, or collects, usually unneeded items. Maybe it’s YOU!

Hey, I’m not calling you out, I’m just giving you a *virtual high five* for solidarity.

All jokes aside, though, hoarding can be hazardous. Sometimes collections get so massive that they compromise living conditions and cause physical and psychological distress. Unfortunately, I know quite a few people who live dangerously in this manner. (It’s time to go through your stuff, guys. I support you.)

Since I joined a blogger challenge, I’ve had more motivation to write, to clean, and to move forward with my personal goals. Hurray! In a way, I guess I’m decluttering my mind by writing, eh?

In true hoarding fashion, and because for some reason this doesn’t embarrass me, here are some pictures of my random messes. (Because on any other day no one would care?)
I don’t have crazy, super, awful messes, but it’s more than enough to drive everyone in my house crazy.

This counter is usually sticky from pouring drinks and as you can see, it’s a catch-all for papers and everything else.

Since I haven’t finished cleaning the cabinet, I still have a (neat) mess on the floor behind the kitchen table.

All of the kids’ school papers end up here. Ugh.

This is my very small hallway – if you can call it that. The pile in the corner is covering a sewing machine. The sloth on the shower curtain in the bathroom checks you out while you pee..

I don’t think the top of that dresser has ever been clean for more than a day. And yes, we love Bad Religion. 🙂

A week or so ago, I started cleaning up my craft cabinet and well… I didn’t get so far with that because we have to USE the kitchen table. I put it all back. I DID sort quite a few things, though. I’m loving these little striped bins, but I think I’m going to end up with a lot of wasted space above them and I’m trying to figure out what to do about it.

I’m making progress… slowly.

Do I add another shelf?
Taller containers?
Or maybe I should finish what I started and THEN figure it out. Hah.

I was determined to clean up my storage building so I can actually have a yard sale and get all the crap I’ve collected OUT of my life and out of my way.

There’s a Christmas tree buried in there.

I have furniture to paint and I can’t very well do that with piles of junk in my work space.

I didn’t intentionally set out to clean something just because of a calendar event, but let’s pretend that I did. 🙂

I really took advantage of having NO RAIN yesterday. It did sprinkle a few times and I stomped and looked angrily at the sky and the rain stopped. (I’ll imagine that I made that happen with my little tantrum.)

I laid out a tarp and put like items together so it would be easier to sort.

That’s an organized mess!

I didn’t take everything out because some of the wood and tools were already in a decent spot. Jake was hard at work sorting game stuff.

I had my husband and oldest son sort through boxes of wires, video game stuff, and car junk. (I didn’t have to get irritated or explain WHY they needed to help me or anything. Nope. I swear they were really jumping with anticipation.)

After everything was sorted and I tossed a few boxes worth of random crap, (why was I keeping a huge box of dried out, 5-year-old finger paints anyway?!) we moved furniture items around, and in a let’s-hope-i-don’t-need-anything-in-that-corner-any-time-soon kind of way, I put everything back.

All of the yard sale stuff is at the front so I can easily move it out. It may not look so different but trust me, this is clean!

Jake decided to “fix” a computer after we finished cleaning up.

I realized that I have way less junk than I thought I did. So I’m not doing so bad. Now if I can just muster up enough motivation to HAVE a yard sale, everything will be golden. 😉

Because I’m a bit of a weirdo and I really like cool stuff, show me your junk! (Shhhh.. I don’t want to see your junk. 😉 )

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Let me oogle your pretties!