Two days ago I was planting a “knock out” rose bush (I highly advocate these plants. They are low maintenance and bloom into the winter months) when I realized how my flower bed had become a bit overgrown with weeds and the bushes needed to be trimmed to tidy them up. I still had the plastic bag from Home Depot that carried my new rose bush and my pruning clippers were on hand…inspiration hit me. I slipped the handle of the plastic bag over my left arm, addressed the bush to my right, and shaped it with my pruning clippers. In ten minutes I had a neatly shaped shrub and a half filled plastic bag on my arm. I was repurposing the bag, I didn’t have to rake the clippings and risk losing the mulch in my beds and the whole process took less than fifteen minutes. I proceeded to snag any weeds that I found around the base of the plant, tied the bag and deposited it in the garbage on my way in.

Last night I grabbed a plastic grocery bag out of my recycling and my pruning clippers to trim another bush and weed beneath it. It only took ten minutes, so I did another. In 20 minutes, I had trimmed my two largest bushes, weeded their area and neatly had all the clippings in the bag hanging on my left arm. AND I never broke a sweat.

I say all this to suggest that never again will I spend half a day with clippers, pruning supplies, garbage bags, rakes; sweating and fighting with my front flower beds. In an average of 15 minutes an evening, I am able to do my entire flower bed in about a weeks time. I can focus on the worst bushes first to give myself a feeling of accomplishment and not drain my energy, my hydration, or my patience.

curly top chaos: You and Daddy need another kid.
chaos caretaker: Excuse me?
curly top chaos: We need less dogs and more kids.
chaos caretaker: Why don’t we talk to your Mommy about getting a new kid?
curly top chaos: She doesn’t have enough rooms at her house.
chaos caretaker: We don’t either.
curly top chaos: But you could get a bigger house with another bedroom.
chaos caretaker: Your Mommy could get a bigger house.
curly top chaos: You have one extra chair at the kitchen table. *at this point curly top chaos smiles smuggly and puts her hands on her hips as if she knows she has me now.*
chaos caretaker: I ice cream you.
curly top chaos: I chocolate you.

I think I am putting that extra chair in the storage room today.

It made me think about how I organize and purchase organizational tools. This purchase was a little backwards from my typical container purchases. My typical mode of operation is to clean out a space; purge dated, exess, or unused items; categorize or sort remaining items, and purchase appropriate organizational tools based on the size of the area (while always keeping in mind convenience and cost.) Sometimes I carry a small list of boxes, bins, and other items (along with their measurements) of organizational tools I need to complete a project. And here is the dilemma…this item wasn’t on my list.

I brought it home and have identified two potential purposes for it. It is an ideal size to hold kindling by my fireplace. It would also serve as a tidy place to house extra toilet paper in my spare bathroom. I am posting this to point out that sometimes it is acceptable to purchase items for storage even if you had not been planning on them, but keep the following in mind: 1. The price is right 2. You can think of at least one practical purpose for the item in your home 3. It fulfills a clutter free vision for your home. Now instead of an impulse purchase that will add to the clutter of your home, I have practical purchase for storage and decorating at an exceptional value.

From the beginning of this dynamic five-way relationship there was the need for consistency. It kept our priorities focused. It gave the children something familiar to connect with. It started slowly at first, just as any good relationship does. There were weekly trips to the farmers market on Saturday morning followed by a library visit to stock up on the week’s reading material. The children became accustomed to the routine of buying our fruits and vegetables together and dropping by Ms. McKinney’s booth to sample a cookie on the way to get our literary works. When we moved across town, the habit of making our weekly trips downtown became cumbersome and it evolved into making “paw paw pancakes” and trips to the neighborhood pool together. For a while the children helped us save money to purchase a backyard playscape and we all monitored our savings progress on a paper thermometer attached to the refridgerator… watching it creep up until, much to their delight, a playscape appeared on our lawn. At Christmas time, it was decided that since baby Jesus only got three gifts that the parents would give three gifts and Santa would leave another. At the birth of this new holiday ritual, their Christmas requests started to be rationed accordingly. By creating family rituals, we were able to connect as a new family in creative ways. I began to hear the children talking to friends and adults about the things that we did. I realized the rituals were a pattern that was helping us cut the cloth of what was becoming a beautiful family unit.

Bedtime is another area that has become a ritual. Baths are taken (we rotate the order to keep things fair.) Teeth are brushed (and inspected.) And then comes the strongest most long-lived ritual of all. We sing. Each child has their own song. We sing every night. We sing badly. Sometimes we sing softly. Sometimes loudly, but every night we sing their own special song right before we kiss them goodnight. The expectation is strong. I keep waiting for my oldest child to be tired (no pun intended) of this nightly ritual. But at twelve, if we miss a night the obvious question will come…”are we not singing tonight?” So sing we do. It is how we connected. Tentatively at first with a new parent that they weren’t quite sure how to behave around. Sowly and steadily evolving into a family ritual.

The day will come when our current family rituals will fade away and be replaced by ones that fit the needs of our budding pre-teens. For now I am content to stay grounded in their presence and to accept that these rituals were the acts that led to behaviors that created this marvelous family.

My adaptation is slight.  I keep several multi-sized baskets during my organizing efforts.  In order to prevent my organizing projects from overflowing into other areas, I retain misplaced items in the baskets sorted by what part of the house they need to be relocated to.  At the end of my organization time, I place the whole basket in the area it belongs.  That way it is ready for when that space becomes my reorganizing target.

So, I tweeted the question…”What part of your home needs an organization overhaul?” Within minutes I had eight responses. The answers varied from the typical “closet clutter” to preventing disorganization in the front entry area where everything gets deposited as you walk in the house. I made a careful list of all the responses and intend to use them as the inspiration for future posts. Thanks, Twitter! Thanks, Tweeps!