Closet Slob...

As I sit here at my computer, I keep hearing this nagging voice in my ear... I'm trying to ignore it, but it won't go away. It sounds sort of like my mother, back on those Saturday mornings when I was kid. She would say, "you aren't going outside until your room is clean and your chores are done."

ARGH... what a pain, who wants to clean when the weather out is perfect?  Certainly not me, but I have this horrid mess in my closet. It IS really nice outside today. I could go ride that horse in the pasture that has the equine version of a human "beer gut". 

 Or I could mow the lawn or maybe just drive around on the four wheeler and "check the cows." Seriously though, my messy closet will still be here when I get back, won't it?  I go in there every morning and tell myself I am going to clean it. It hasn't happened. Well, that's not true. I HAVE cleaned my closet, just not lately. I keep piling the clothes in there hoping that some fairies or elves or something will show up, late in the night and magically clean and organize the whole mess. They must be busy someplace else, because my closet still looks like a bomb went off in there.
   
    I suppose I must say that some of the blame lies with my husband. He shares the closet with me. He goes in there too. Everyday, he finds a shirt in his part of the closet (which, FYI, is bigger than my part of the closet) and he comes out with his fresh clean shirt, leaving me empty hangers to fill. He could clean it, right? I mean we've only been married four years. What did he do before me? Hmm, I'm thinking he had the WHOLE closet and finding ways to organize it weren't so pressing for him. So, I guess I should take most of the blame for why our closet is a huge mess. I buy most all the clothing around here. Even though whenever we have to go out someplace, I have NOTHING decent to wear. Seriously, I never have anything nice to wear. When you live on a ranch, who is there to impress? My wardrobe consists of jeans, hooded sweatshirts, stained tee shirts and muck boots. I haven't heard the cows complaining about my dirty jeans and stained sweatshirts. They still keep eating the hay I put out there, so obviously my attire doesn't bother them. It bothers me, but I digress.
 Right now, I really can't think of a good reason to clean the closet, other than I might find some "new" clothes that I haven't worn in six months or so and feel really snazzy wearing something different out.... on the ranch and to work (which is on the ranch in a little trailer, where I cook the most delicious food on the planet, but that's another story). The obvious reason to clean it would be that I would be living in a nice clean organized house with immaculate closets. HA!!! I have three full time kids and one part timer... (a dog, three cats, a husband-though I think I mentioned him before) living in this house. Both of my girls have clean closets (see, I pass on good genes) so, I can just refer people to their closets when they open one in another area of the house and find something falling out on top of them.
 What I'm really waiting for is some "organizational" materials to put IN the closet to "help" me know where things should go. You know, those handy bins and shelves and hooks and stuff?? Those are great. Actually, I wouldn't know that they are great, but they look really nice in the pictures and displays at the hardware store. When I'm standing there in the "closet organizing" dept at the store, I really want to buy that stuff, but for some odd reason, I never have the measurements and dimensions for the things that I might need. Sometimes, I drive ALL the way to town thinking that I'm going to buy all the stuff I need to "fix" the closets, and then I come out of the store with a really nice new razor knife (box cutter), for cutting hay bales. That's it!! Just a razor knife. And I'm totally thrilled about it. Sad, huh? I just can't break down and buy the "stuff" for the closet. Somehow, I know that those boxes and bins will just sit in my entry or they might make it into my closet (unopened and un-assembled) until I find time to start another project.


 That's what it all boils down to, finding time. Prioritizing. There are a million things around this place that need to be done. But, there's only one of me. There's only one of my husband too. Right now, we have a project that is going into it's fourth week. Our living room is half covered with hardwood floor and all the furniture in it is jammed into the far corner of the room. It looks really pretty... if you were used to living in a junkyard. Or if you are a cat. Our cats are having a great time, because all the couches and chairs are snuggled close together making it a perfect kitty sleeping place. We'd like to get that room finished though, so it's on the top of the "HOUSE" priority list. And that list falls behind the "Reuben's Work" list, the "Jenny's Work" list, the "RANCH" list and the "KIDS" list. See what I'm getting at? The closet isn't ranking up there very high.

I hope that I'm not alone in the fact that my closet is in severe need of love. It seems to be a "catch-all" for the stuff that just accumulates in an average week/month....year....decade... (hee hee)  It's really not that funny to me, but as long as my laundry is folded and clean when I stack into the little piles in the closet, I suppose that will have to be okay for now. Maybe someday, when the kids are grown, the cows are all fed and the horses are skin and bones, (and the little fairies and elves come in the middle of the night) I will have time to really clean my closet. Until then, my friends will have to accept me like the cows do... stained shirts, muck boots and all...