hudebnik: (Default)
hudebnik ([personal profile] hudebnik) wrote in [personal profile] hrj 2021-03-10 12:57 pm (UTC)

We don't seem to even run our Roomba very often because of the prerequisite floor-decluttering effort: a substantial fraction of the floor surface in both our bedroom and our dining/living room is dog beds, which need to be picked up and put on top of some other article of furniture before vacuuming, and there are things plugged into things, which means the power cords have to be picked up and put on top of something, and there are chairs whose legs Roomba can't fit between, which means they need to be picked up and put on top of something, and so on.

My mother has a "cleaning woman" come in on a regular schedule (every week or two), which forces her to declutter equally regularly the day before. We used to have a friend over to play music every week or two, which likewise forced us to declutter at least the guest-facing portions of the house that often, but one such friend moved farther away, another died, and a third moved farther away, and then Covid suspended the practice of "having friends over".

So we very much need to develop a regular chore schedule like that.

I was brought up to believe in (if not always practice) the ideals of "a place for everything, and everything in its place," and "put things away when you're done with them." And when I was single, without a lot of possessions, I actually did a decent job of that. When we got married, we suddenly had two apartments' worth of stuff in one apartment, and many things simply didn't have a place to be put away. Then my father-in-law moved out of the ancestral home into a smaller place, and we inherited more stuff, so more things didn't have a place, and my mother and stepfather moved out of the ancestral home into a smaller place, and we inherited more stuff, so more things didn't have a place, and we keep acquiring musical instruments and many of them don't have a place. So there are Things All Over the Place that don't get put away because they don't have an Away. Which means we also very much need to Get Rid of Stuff.

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