I'm a mess.

I totally figured out my problem in this house. It is not just that I find keeping up with four cats and a husband hard - though it is, and though I have to say David has TOTALLY stepped up his game and has been awesome the past week since we have started discussing it more - it is that my own behavior is totally at odds with how one lives in a larger space.

Take, for example, my clothes. Actually - let's ONLY take my clothes. That's the real problem for me and it ALWAYS has been. Don't ask me why, but I seem to be incapable of putting my clothes away. I come home from work, undress, and throw everything on a chair. I kick off my shoes and set them next to said chair. And so it goes, day after day, until there is a veritable Mt Everest of clothing and footwear. Yes, I know it is bad and I should rid myself of this habit, but that's the way it has been since I was 10 or whatever and that is going to be a very very difficult habit to break totally. But here's the thing: when living in apartments there would be a natural area cap on this behavior. Eventually, I could not ignore the pile anymore because the space was small, and I would have to put it all away, or I couldn't move in my bedroom anymore. So in Boston, I had a sort of week pile-up, then on Sunday I'd put it all away. And I'd rarely pile clothes in the front room because it was SO small that even one or two stray shoes made it look like a disaster.

Now I am in a house, and guess what? One chair fills, so I can totally move on to the next room and fill another chair! And I don't even have to LOOK at the first chair! There is so much space to throw my clothing indiscriminately! It's like the clothes monster threw up everywhere!

I hereby admit that this bad habit of mine is contributing to my less than enthusiastic feelings about our living arrangements. But I think now that I recognize this, I can start to change my habits. Right? Yes. I can. I can, and I will.

Also, I just have a lot of clothes to get rid of. So that will help with the mountains.

I should also mention that on the other hand, I tend to be more anal about bathroom & kitchen organization and cleanliness, because if they were disorganized or dirty it was a problem for the whole apartment and any visitors. And then looking back more, when I shared apartments/dorms, they had to be kept up because it was shared space. No one cared what each other's PERSONAL space looked like. But I'm willing to keep bathroom cleaning as my sole responsibility these days, because David is so great at remembering to clean the litter boxes. :)

Now if I could just get the cats to stop throwing up, because they sure as shit don't clean up their own messes.

Anyway, attitude adjusted. Mostly. I'm doing my best, anyway.

Comments

[Abigail M. Schilling]

I do the exact same thing with the chairs and the not putting away. However, rather than try to break the habit, I've developed a system to hide the habit. I am a disease.