The State of the Bedroom Report - Three Weeks Later

[velvetpage]

For those closet voyeurs out there lurking on my friends list, this is not about the bedroom in the euphemistic sense of the word. No, this is about the actual room which holds the bed and the bulk of my husband's and my clothing.

You many remember a few weeks ago, our bedroom underwent a remarkable transformation from pigsty to habitable space. We cleaned out bags upon bags of unneeded clothing, stored the things which we were not wearing at the moment, did large amounts of laundry, and organized what was left over. We also came to some mutual decisions about laundry days - specifically, Wednesdays for me and Saturdays for Piet, baby laundry as necessary.

I am happy to report that so far, this system has worked very well. There are two loads from today currently waiting to be folded and put away. There are no baskets of clean clothes lying around. The dirty clothes basket has things from today only in it. The bed has no clean clothes on it, either, because I just finished putting them away. I have worn about six different pair of socks three or four times each since the clean-up. When these pair start to develop holes, I'll dig down into the next layer. Since I figure it will take months for these socks to wear out and I have six more sets of seven pair of socks waiting to be worn (yes, that's right, approximately fifty pair), I imagine I will not be buying socks for about two years. The same is true of underwear.

Pants, however, are still a problem. I dug up exactly one pair that fit that I had not already been wearing, and since that week, one pair has given out entirely. I will need to spend some Christmas gift certificates on one or two pair in order to keep my wardrobe big enough to miss a Wednesday wash if necessary. Besides, a woman needs some variety. Also, since I have exactly one pair of shoes that fit properly, I really hope my dad takes my suggestion and gets me a big gift certificate to the specialty shoe shop. I say big, because the pair that fit cost me $170. That's a big hunka change, ladies and gentlemen. I really want some dressy shoes so I can wear skirts again, and I seriously need some workout shoes. Is it too much to ask that I can get three pair that fit?

Conclusion: organization works. It is indeed much easier to KEEP something clean than it is to clean it in the first place, but keeping it clean still takes concerted effort and willpower.

Comments

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

Envious!
I have clothes everywhere in various stages of the laundry process. With any luck, this'll be remedied before the new year.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I know the feeling. The only time I've ever been on top of this in the past was when we lived in the apartment and couldn't leave stuff in the laundry room. Even then, we'd have baskets of clean stuff everywhere.

Now if only I could get on top of Elizabeth's stuff. . .

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

They do some very stylish shoes with steel toecaps...I kid you not my Supervisor some 5 jobs back (bless 'im) used to sport natty blue trainers that you could drop a small anvil on without sustaining hurt.
Why toecaps?
1. Kids are always treading on your feet (Sis had one little baalamb put a chair on her foot accidentally and plonk hisself down before she could stop him)
2. Shoes like that make a real impression where it counts when it counts.

I'd use RadioSpares http://www.rswww.com in the UK of course in Canada that would differ....
But the strange thing is that my Totectors which look like Clark's shoes (and were probably made by FWIW) with the acid resistant soles were £47...and the Clark's are £60+ full price.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

My problem is feet about as wide as they make specialized shoes - the wide end of a triple-D. I'm not even sure I can find fancy shoes that will work, but if I can, there's a shoe store downtown that will sell them. Because of the way athletic shoes are made, they should be easier. Of course, shoes at that store start at $100 and go up from there (about 50 pounds, I think. . .) so it had better be a big gift cert. My dad was making noises about budgeting $200 for each of us. I think that would cover it!

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

I mentioned trainers because general impression of "safety" or "steel toe" shoes tends to be of beetle crushing clodhopping boots. They cater for most feet....builders and warehousemen aren't ballerinas although most can be as graceful.