I've been SPRING CLEANING.
That means that if you walk into my abode it looks like both a hurricane and an earthquake hit about the same time. Really, you must bear with me. This is part of my process towards an actual photo-op of a very clean, tidy and organized household.
How can anyone who has an entire room devoted to file boxes full of research really get more organized? OK, I've been thinking of putting these all under a big table with a long tablecloth over it, for dust, and for the visual of neatness. It's true I don't go into these boxes all that often. Also I rarely have 12 people over for dinner.
Just as I was getting ahead on the project, life was complicated by the unprecedented offer to be part of a garage sale with several other neighbors. I'd been thinking of having a sale, but obviously having it at the same time - a great big sale - with my neighbors taking responsibility for listing it on e-Bay and Facebook - was the best thing to do.
So, I spent several days pulling things out of storage and placing tags. (I hate sales where nothing is marked.) In the end I really didn't have that much to sell, and most of it was gently worn clothing, things that I hadn't donated to charity in the fall, and that I would donate if they didn't sell.
I found a wardrobe on wheels to take these freshly laundered and ironed items out to the front yard, but it was a VERY WINDY DAY, and the wind knocked the whole wardrobe down a few times, each time all the clothes flew to the ground on their hangers. So some of them got dirty despite all my efforts.
Message: Shouldn't we be out sailing on such a glorious day?
Inevitably, the wind also knocked the signs my neighbors had spent hours making and then attaching to poles down the block to direct traffic, and my neighbor, who really did have a garage full of things to sell, got kind of upset when he checked and it turned out that 375 (three hundred and seventy five) other garage sales were taking place on the very same day as ours in a 20 mile radius.
Brilliant minds think alike?
I made the best of it. Tied the dog up to a tree in the shade, brought out sodas, and sold some poor man, who wanted shoes for his wife, five pairs for $25, even though I thought I should have gotten $50.
Meanwhile, back in the house, dishes piled up, so did laundry, so did books, movies, and binders meant to store this years research - lots of copies of 1940 census pages. Even though I know I will get caught up, I had a momentary panic.
OK, it was one of those "you don't want to get caught like this" moments. You know. Just when things are this messy, that's when someone unexpected will show up and have to be allowed inside. Like your high school sweetheart back in town for a visit?!
I hope you're laughing with me!
I'm starting to get a grip. I just delivered four file boxes full of paperbacks and VHS films to a library that was very happy to have them. Tonight, after dinner and the dog's walk, I think I'll rewatch an old movie and sort the laundry.
C Ancestry Worship Genealogy 2012 All Rights Reserved
