Attempting to sort stuff out on the table, I'm reminded of the Law of Flat Surfaces. Certainly holds true in my case. Every flat surface of my tiny flat is covered in accumulated clutter. Except for the dishwasher. It sprung a leak recently which meant I had to take all the stuff off the top of it in order to cobble together a repair. It struck me how nice it looked for a change, and it made me look around.. and shudder. Miniest is a prolific crafter and artist, and I'm discreetly removing the not greatest of her work and binning/recycling. Also the various items (cardboard tubes etc) that I've been promised will be used to create something. Sorry but we just don't have room and it's making the place look like a shithole. I feel like a monster, both for judging the artistic merits of an almost 10 year olds work and for disposal of it. There's stuff that's my fault too, like receipts and flyers and odd unfilled documents. Why am I so bloody untidy‽ I guess I get home from work and have to cook etc and when I have spare time I just want to blob out and do nothing.
It's ok. You can't keep everything. A lot of parents do keep a few sentimental items and have to downsize the rest.
You're also working all the time, raising the kids, responsible for doing everything and picking up after everybody. You're not untidy. You're exhausted and needing that downtime.
@PeelerSheila@melbaboutown oh this is me too, I have the excuse of only just finishing renovations when I got an excruciating herniated disc, which took about 3 months to almost heal... and then promptly another disc popped. Am only now starting to feel like the surfaces might get cleared again as the post-reno reorganising is only just in the last week really starting to resolve.
Ouch! Take it easy mate, that sounds awful! It's so frustrating when you have to look at things which need doing because you can't get stuck into it. Mr Peeler gets disc trouble and he can go from naught to bedridden in a very short amount of time.
@PeelerSheila thankyou! Sorry to hear your partner has ongoing issues - I'm truly not looking forward to the potential of this to keep reoccurring now its happened twice in a row with little time in between. But it has given me the kick up the arse to lose weight and despite the ongoing poor sleep and pain not yet resolved, daytimes are pretty good now, I am getting at least 5 hrs sleep (up from 2-3 hrs a couple weeks ago) and can function even though mornings take a while to warm up. My surfaces! I can almost see theeemmmmm!