Snow Storm/Drifting ~ It's a "Grab a Cup of Java" kind of post

Warning:  This may be the most boring post you'll ever read.

There are two rooms that drive me nuts (and I mean NUTS!), and for 3 years I have attempted to clean them out, purge, organize etc.  Hubby jokes to me all the time, saying "what is it this time, going on 3 years?"  

A stay-at-home Mom should have the house superbly spic and span, right?  I mean that's what we are home for, to keep things in order, run the kids from here to there (which we are still doing)....the CEO of the house and family.  Ha, yeah.  It's a battle for me, considering I do all things self sufficient.  Those things take time, and I am a busy, busy gal, but the rooms cause me mental chaos when I have to enter them.


The rooms are my bedroom closet and our large utility room. Well, I lied,  there is another area (the garage too).   I can barely get through either without tripping on something.  Kids!  They frustrate me with their inability to put things where they belong, and as for my closet, it's been held up due to the utility room (where I am moving my craft supplies).  And the empty canning jars are piling up as we drift through winter, so those are everywhere in my utility room.  I even put up a cupboard and shelves one year, and we still seem to run out of room.  Oye.  

With that said. . .being snowed in has it's advantages.  Other than hand shoveling the huge drive, because the plow is broken down.  Then again, I still have regular chores to do too.

My first day entering the utility room had me shaking my head, rolling my eyes and sighing long drawn out sighs.  I filled a garbage bag, and started another.  I have enough cardboard now to supply our back stop for a year too.

Vet Tech daughter left her insulated lunch bag here, after she moved out and bought a new one.  I washed it up and another kiddo was using it.  I found it with gooey caramel inside with a fork stuck to it!  Seriously.  Then I found 3 ring binders tossed in coat cubbies with her name on them, and she even denied her stuff-it-where-I-want.

I then started to wonder if Hubby was in on the stash-it-because-I'm-too-lazy entertaining activity left for me.  I found anchors and a drill bit ( he was probably fixing my wall mounted indoor clothesline).  Hm.  He has probably been looking for it for a year now.

I found a bag of metal egg dippers you color eggs with at Easter time.  My kids haven't colored eggs in years.  How did I ever miss the bag when I had a huge start on the room last year??  It's now in a tote I pulled from the garage (another successful purge), and will be gladly donated to two family members with youngin's.  They will have enough plastic eggs to hold a town egg hunt too.  My kids won't have grandkids for years, so it's not worth storing for that reason.

The wine making supplies were organized a bit better this time around.  I washed down the washing machine, and dryer, swept, mopped, swept and mopped and swept again.  Oh there is much to clean in there.  I need to buy more light bulbs for in there too.

Four place-mats are going to a new home.

Four winter coats are finding a new home.  Two wearable, two ready for the trash. 

I asked "Youngest" if she was able to to wear her "work coat" any more.  She laughed and said no, and told me how her brother was pulling her around on the sled and her coat got caught on something.  She duct taped it and it was then her "work coat" for when we all went out to split wood together.  

I need to take all the coats out of the cubbies (they have no doors on them, just a curtain on a rod to cover them), and wash down the woodwork.  Then I have to do the same under my shelf that goes along the back of the room for folding clothes (which has never been used for that, only to be used for storing canning jars, and canned foods when I ran out of space elsewhere.

Speaking of "driving me nuts" I found my long lost nut pick.  The kids put the nuts in there during a holiday in 2016, and I never found it. Now I have one again.  It was literally on the floor under a goat bucket.  Ha.  Yeah, the goat bucket is not going anywhere, nor any goat stuff (that doesn't expire).  I have high hopes, so I'll find a good spot for it.  No purge there.

A box was started for the thrift store too.  So many things the kids don't use or wear anymore.  I found several hand crocheted scarves the kids have, and don't use.  They are washed up and at the front door now, for taking the dogs out.

The washer and dryer are wiped down, but I need to clean out the drawers underneath them yet.

It pays to tidy up and purge etc.  In the process of stacking boxes of empty canning jars, I found several boxes of ketchup, tomato paste, sauce, chutney, salsa and beets.  Yep.  In 2016 we had a 500# plus year with tomatoes and I had to stash jars everywhere.  I was so excited to find them, so they are in the kitchen cupboards now.  Yay!

As for the snow storm, we got very little, but it was very windy and cold. Drifting is always an issue in our large horse shoe shaped drive.  On a good note, now that the big barn is down, there are no drifts on the north of the drive now.  On the south, near the house, we still get drifting.  Hubby came in late, and sped around it a few times, so our daughter could get my car in after she got off work at midnight.  I had to laugh. He was spinning around like a teenager doing donuts.  He must have enjoyed it, ha ha!

Now....back to the utility room.  It may take me weeks to completely finish it.  As I work through it, I find projects that need done.  Lots of them.  Looks like another list for winter.  That's okay too.  It keeps me from being sedentary.  And I will be a happy camper when busy garden season rolls in.