I think I’m nesting, but not in the usual way. While I am anticipating the arrival of a long-awaited creation, it’s of the couch variety, not the babe. I’ve been all a flutter moving things from here to there, rearranging, and repurposing. It’s great fun, but experience has taught me that the path to organization is rarely linear. My “cleaning” involves a lot of collateral mess. My husband has learned to accept this little eccentricity and now only on occasion, having surveyed my progress, raises an eyebrow when I shout over a pile (that was previously clear floor space) that, “I’m cleaning!”
This week lent itself to taking a long, hard look at our parenting obstacles. The biggest challenge to address, we felt, was that darned TV and DVD player. Yes, I know I said I was going to remove it again, but I didn’t. I came up with the idea for “Film Festival Friday” and thought we could manage the distraction the rest of the week. I think we could have, expect that Swine Flu hit and movies became management tool numero uno. And then came the spiral. I’ll post more on the whole TV debacle when I get the chance.
So, if you don’t have a television set, you have little use for an entertainment armoire. Poof. Gone. Repurpose. Let the organization begin. And we did.
The armoire is now my new craft center in the office. My old craft center, a dumpster diving rescue piece, became my new storage room shelves. I needed shelves, because the bookcases I shoved in my storage closet when we moved into the house several years ago, just relocated to my living room to flank my fireplace (which, by the way, I was only able to do now that the armoire had a new home). From there I moved paintings and collected treasures around until it felt good enough for now.
Prior to all this rearranging, I had been drooling over a set of IKEA bookcases. I wanted to live among our books. As it was, our collection was closed off and out of reach. The purchase of something new was out of the question, but it didn’t stop me from creating a design plan that included said bookcases. It’s a good thing I saved the money I never had to spend, because it turns out a better solution was right under my nose…er stuffed in my closet. My forgotten shelves, so long ago put inside the closet, are a pretty satisfactory substitute.
The repurposing of the bookcases set into motion all the moving and shaking I mentioned earlier. It always amazes me how simple solutions, to seemingly expensive “problems,” bubble up to the surface when I allow the time and space for it to happen. If unlimited resources were at my disposal, I wonder, would it impact my creativity? If I could snap my fingers and manufacture instant solutions would I ever risk immediate gratification for a gamble outside the box? I suppose one could argue that such luxuries might boost creativity, what with more time to devote to my craft and less spent worrying about making ends meet, the must-have nanny to entertain the children, Alice from The Brady Bunch to cook and clean and any other conveniences I deemed worthy of a few bucks. Would I have bothered to collect the mossy branches, victims of a recent wind storm? Had I not, I wouldn’t have the cool new arrangement to sit on top of those bookcases I was so anxious to move. I also wouldn’t have figured out where the chairs, which I have yet to purchase (yes, those are our camping chairs in the photo of the living room), would go when the much-anticipated couch finally arrives. I wonder if I’d still get all nesty and industrious?
I exaggerate not at all when I say that one choice leads to another, that the path to organization requires a few steps backward and that inspiration comes from the brush pile your husband would rather not see in the middle of the front lawn. And all this because of a couch? Yes, and to make a point. Anyone can organize or decorate on a shoestring. It’s quite likely you already have everything you need stuffed in a closet waiting to be repurposed.
Also, I finally finish my cafe curtains and valance.
