Pride & Prejudice

It’s a story of begats …but not quite at the level of  William‘s kind of begats. It’s a story of  trust… but also the lack of trust. It’s the story of the trials and tribulations of marriage, and the story of overcoming obstacles.

It’s the story of my new crafting/scrapbooking workspace.  (You probably weren’t expecting that, were you?)

It started with the basement and a need to get better airflow passages for the dehumidifier.
Or maybe it started with my realization that I can’t be creative in a dark, dungeon-like space.

At any rate, SuperDad and I were talking for a few precious minutes one night and we both came up with the solution: my crafting supplies were moving up in the world!
DOWN with old computer desks, failing printers, and Windows 95! (It hasn’t had internet access in YEARS, but it still operates as a word processor.)

Problem number one: H-J’s school stuff.
Problem solver: SuperDad
Result: SuperDad had already installed the shelves 2 years ago, creating twice the usable closet space. The child who takes after his mother when it comes to belongings was given additional shelf space in the hall closet…. he gets the long shelf AND the shelf above it.  NOW I don’t have to worry about tripping over textbooks and flute cases!
[note: Our secondary schools run on block scheduling — 4 classes on “A” day and 4 different classes on “B” day — so that big stack of textbooks and binders is only half of what H-J lugs to school in the course of a week.]

Problem number two: This is an example of what had become of my basement craft area…

Workspace chaos -- note that I only took a picture of the floor. Just trust me that the tabletop is just as bad. After I found a mouse turd last year, I stopped using it. Because HELLO? Mouse turd means there was a mouse!!!

And then there is the computer desk with internet access…

So, um, perhaps my dh had good reason to be skeptical of my claims that I would keep my new workspace clean?  (Decluttering is not my strong point…)  Well, to earn that trust, I had to clean up the computer desk a bit:

Things began looking a little different on the other side of the room…

First, SuperDad decluttered the mass of papers that were on dismantled the old computer desk.

Then stuff began coming upstairs…

And every little detail began freaking me out… from the 3-hole punch coming upstairs (that is NOT a crafting tool! That is an office tool!) to the horror of anyone, ANY-ONE, touching my stuff!!
Um, yeah. I might have freaked out. A lot.
Meanwhile, my dear husband is TRYING to do this wonderful thing for me: creating a front room workspace where I can be creative and look across a room or out the window. And I’m going all ninja-Type B on him.   And he’s worrying that he is only a few years away from his wife turning into a hoarder.

[whimper]  I’m not a hoarder. I’m a victim of the clutter monster… Me.

It was not a pretty scene. SuperDad had turned on his work persona (type A, and no extra guesses what the A stands for) and I was digging in my heels and being (gulp!) passive-agressive… a type B, if you will (I’m sure you can figure that one out, too).
Frankly, we didn’t like each other very much for an entire week.  Yes, there was a bit of pride and prejudice running rampant in Kcinnova’s World, and it was rather unpleasant for everyone.

The good news is, love is a choice. It’s not all about feelings and romance; it’s about hanging on when the going gets tough and you’re wading through the clutter of life. Love is a verb — and you just keep on loving even when you don’t feel like it.

And by Thanksgiving (right on time with SuperDad’s deadline) I was blessed with this incredible new space:

♥ I  LOVE  IT !!! ♥

And yes, I have been using it AND keeping it clean! I’ve worked on my current scrapbook (“Blessings on the Journey”) and I’ve paid bills and done a little filing.  Hiding behind the picture of Neuschwanstein is my Alpha Drawer, a place to stash any papers that don’t immediately have a home. My goal is to go through the drawer every 2 weeks and weed out the obvious junk recycling stuff that doesn’t need to be there anymore.

PS: This entire room re-do? Didn’t cost us a dime. The worktop is an old door we got for free and it is laying on top of an old chest of drawers and my childhood desk (can you say STORAGE?).  We just moved things from one room to another and got rid of clutter.
I’ve also had to weed out books that my kids have outgrown and some of my own, too.  Some I am keeping, for sentimental reasons or because they are extra-special books. But the reality is books are easily found at the library and the thrift shop (which is where our bounty is headed); and when you move every couple of years like we do, books add too much weight to our cargo limit.
As for the papers, our recycling bin is overflowing in the garage and I’m really hoping that it isn’t raining tomorrow when the truck comes to pick it all up!