October 02, 2005

Sunday afternoon cleaning

My kids are good about doing their chores, but their standards are different than mine. Very different. So every once in a while, I like to go through and clean the downstairs of the house myself. Just to keep the health inspectors away. What is frustrating is that after several hours of cleaning, the living area still looks kind of messy. That is because it's filled with strange items that don't really belong anywhere else.

Not much fits in our bedrooms because they are small. We do not own even one chest of drawers. So the bedroom closets are needed for clothes. We already have a computer in the boys' bedroom -- and the television set - because there is no other place to put things that I don't want in the living area. And we don't have a family room or den or dining room or basement or attic or any of those extra rooms other people use to store miscellaneous items.

One main room is pretty much what we've got. And the room, with a brick fireplace and lots of windows, would look lovely if we didn't have so much stuff strewn about. Today, I did take newspapers out to the garage, and I piled books and games on the staircase with the theory that they should go up to the bedrooms. I tossed dozens of white socks and crumpled t-shirts into the laundry hamper. I piled all the sneakers in the hall closet. But odd items still remain:

One electric guitar
One bass guitar
Two amps
Microphone and stand
A balance board
About twenty drum sticks
Sound Off pads for the drums
Two rolls of duct tape
A flood light balance precariously on the front window sill
Piles of music books and loose sheet music
Three school backpacks filled with books
A saxophone
Tins of Yu-Gi-0h cards
Four decks of cards, two tins of poker chips
Hacky sacks piled onto the top of the piano
Various black cords
Sixteen frisbees
Three broom handles, not used for cleaning
Ten light sabers, battle ready
An orange tree tall enough to touch the ceiling
A full set of drums

So after an afternoon of cleaning, my living room still looks - well, lived in, I guess. But I did get all those crumbs off the carpeting. Sigh. Maybe I should have gone for a walk instead.

19 comments:

negativecapability said...

TEN light sabers? My boyfriend (a self-confessed Star Warks geek) would like to come play at your house :).

jo(e) said...

Negativecapability: Well, we often have TEN kids playing outside in the dark with the light sabers. So tell your boyfriend to come on over but he needs to bring his own saber.

~profgrrrrl~ said...

Wow. That's a lot of light sabers.

jo(e) said...

Years ago, Shaggy Hair Boy planted the orange tree from seeds from an orange. The tree, in a big pot in the living room, is tall enough that I have to keep trimming it because it scrapes against the ceiling.

listie said...

Sounds like my lemon tree. Can you get your orange tree to bloom?

jo(e) said...

Bloom? No. Not that I would even know how to try. The only thing I ever do is water it once a week.

And it most definitely does not get enough sunlight. Especially during the winter months. I probably live in the worst climate you could possibly have for growing an orange tree.

Pilgrim/Heretic said...

I was more impressed by the number of frisbees. Definitely time to go play at jo(e)'s!

jo(e) said...

Well, for frisbee golf, each person needs a frisbee. And the frisbee golf frisbees are smaller than the ones we use for Ultimate Frisbee.

You can never have too many frisbees.

Anonymous said...

I will often stack things on a stairway thinking that someone else will pick it up and carry it to the place it belongs.

I always thought of myself as a pessimist, but clearly I am capable of hoping where there is no hope.

I think you should do that spinning plates on broomsticks thing with the frisbees & the light sabers...

jo(e) said...

Spinning frisbees on light sabers? Kathyr, you would so fit in at my house.

Anonymous said...

Whoa, sounds like a jam session ready to happen to me. I repeat,
Jo(e), your house sounds like fun, filled with just the sort of teenagers I enjoy.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

LOL! Well, this made me laugh out loud.

At least everyone is busy living and enjoying themselves.

I wish we could have walked together. It was a lovely day!

ccw said...

What an odd assortment of left-overs. 16 frisbees? I thought we were weird for having about 10 lying around the playroom and backyard.

Their cleaning sounds like Kid L's room. She will spend hours picking up and I will not be able to see a noticeable difference.

Psycho Kitty said...

Honey, there's a reason they call 'em GARAGE bands...
But once again, I'm in love with your home.

halloweenlover said...

Have you been stopping by my house, Jo(e)? We have an equally odd assortment, just minus the light sabers and the frisbees. But many many pairs of shoes and dog toys. And magazines and catalogs. And work and school papers. I should attempt the clean sweep also.

lostinthemiddle said...

3 broom handles?

What happened to the sweep-y parts?

jo(e) said...

Lostinthemiddle: No idea what happened to the broom part of the brooms. We see to have an awful lot of handles lying about. Some of them are taped together, to be used for skateboard jumps. One has a spoon duct-taped to one end and a pie server to the other. Boy in Black keeps saying it is some useful gadget he has invented. The others are used as weapons of some sort in mock battler.

I can't recall the last time anyone here actually used a broom for something like sweeping the floor.

Rob Helpy-Chalk said...

"A mic and boom
In the living room
In Hitsville UK

No consumer trails!
No A&R!
In Hitsville UK"

--The Clash.

I love the sight of musical instruments in common areas. Especially if they look like they have been used recently.

Kathryn said...

1 violin, 1 viola, 1 cello, 1 flute, 1 piccolo, 1 ironing board plus EU ironing mountain.......
Jo(e) I definitely think we are long lost sisters ;-)