Riding The Crazy Train

You know what I think is one of the greatest things ever invented?

Totes.

We certainly have our share of them at our house! Do you know why I love them so much? Because you can stash all of your junk in them, stack them on top of each other, and pretend you are all organized.

Hubs has this grand plan of having a garage sale sometime in August. Along with that, I am in the process of sorting through my 1,700 books that I have bought over the 10 years that I have been homeschooling. I am selling some of them on eBay, so I can afford some of the higher priced items that I plan to buy for the oldest who will be a...gulp.....junior this year.

In order to sort through stuff, you have to make one gigantic mess along the way! This means piles and piles and PILES of books stacked here and there and everywhere.

This eBaying stuff is a full time job, I tell you! First, each and every book must be found. In my case, this is often easier said, than done. When you have an entire set of something, it tends to sell better, and for more money.

Now, if you are one of those perfectly organized homeschool Moms, then you have dutifully stacked everything together at the end of the year, and all in grade order.

However, if you are like me, you sometimes don't even go through things, you just throw them all together into a tote, sometime before the beginning of the next school year. You may or may not remember to label what is in said tote. Along with the school books, which may or may not be together in the set they came in, may be a collection of other odds and ends you needed to find a place for along the way, such as old copies of bills, magazines, clothes a child has outgrown....hypothetically speaking.

So, when you have found what you think is the entire set of what you have, then you must go through each and every page in each and every book. Some of these books are 300-400 pages long!You are looking for highlighting, stray pencil marks (that you must erase), underlining, or random pictures that a bored child may have drawn. Not that any of MY children are ever bored in school. No siree, Bob. Each and every day here is filled with joy and happiness, and the girls are always eager and willing to learn. Ahem.

So far, my biggest money maker has been Teaching Textbooks for Math. I will be doing a review on this curriculum soon, so stay tuned!

In the midst of all of this mayhem, our realtor called and said that we had another showing. Which is like.....Yay! But, wow. LOTS of work to be done to get ready for it!

All of the many, many books had to be put back in the totes, although, this time, I tried to keep them separated so I would actually know what was in each one.

The stuff that I had gone through for the garage sale was just put who knows where. Will this garage sale actually happen? Only time will tell. All of the totes are now neatly stacked back together, and I am very hesitant to get them ALL back out to go through them again.

I was joking with Hubs, who does not find my disorganization funny by the way, that perhaps I should just label each tote "junk", because that would be an appropriate term for what is in at least half of them!

My girls cringe when I start "crazy cleaning" because they know that whatever I put away, there is a pretty good chance that they will never see it again. What can I say. Organization is NOT one of my strong points. Out of sight....out of mind.

My oldest daughter is away for several days, and I told her that, before she left, she needed to make sure her room and bathroom were clean for the showing. I told her that if she didn't clean them, that was okay.....I would just clean them for her!

Needless to say, before she left? They were both clean. Ha!

I always tell myself that I will deal with it another day. Why do something today, when you can put it off until tomorrow? Only....tomorrow never seems to come.

You think to yourself, "Self.....don't you own such and such? Yes, you do! But.....where did you put it?"

Then, on one of your crazy cleaning sprees, you find it, when it is no longer needed, or no longer fits the child you bought it for.

I am especially terrible when it comes to papers. They are never where I can find them. I make more work for myself that I really need to because of it.

Every year I tell myself that I WILL do better this year. This will be the year that I am super organized, have everything in it's proper place, and even perhaps remember where I put things.

Make me feel better. Tell me I'm not the only one who has no clue how to organize things! I have read all of the books, it's just like I am missing the organization gene or something!

I am seriously considering buying sock clips because I cannot keep the socks together after they get washed. We have totes that contain nothing but stray socks!

The totes they are in are not labeled, by the way.

So, if any of you super organized people out there have any tips that I can use to help organize my crazy life, feel free to leave me a helpful comment. It would be greatly appreciated!

Now, where did I put the girls' 4-H project papers? Perhaps they are in the tote with the stray socks....