This weekend, Flea was visiting her Dad, and then headed off for a night with Grandma and Grandad.
My best friend is in town and we were faced with the thrilling – nay, dizzying – prospect of a whole weekend to cut loose and do whatever we liked. What to do?
Well, first off, I alphabetised the DVD collection (sub-dividing into feature films and box-sets, obviously):
Then I upped the ante and spent a thrilling hour matching up all my Converse and giving them a quick clean:
After that, I let the good times keep on rollin' and sorted out all the toy baskets. For some weird reason, Flea doesn't share my belief in the importance of keeping small animals and action figures separately, so I took the opportunity to demonstrate how much better things look when they're in their RIGHT place.
I tidied the fridge. I went through my overflowing desk drawers and shredded enough paper to fill three big black sacks. I backed up my hard drive – twice to external hard drives and then a THIRD time to cloud storage. I know! Crazy, right?
And then came the highlight of our weekend.
If you've ever read the fantastic Motley Crue biography, The Dirt, then my weekend makes THEIR weekends look tame. Oh yes. This is the kind of thrill-seeking that makes Motley Crue look like Terry and June.
Yep. After the abject failure of my To-Do lists to make me, well, do anything in recent weeks, I bought myself a white board. It's a thing of beauty. Look upon it and be dazzled.
Then we sat in my lounge where I marvelled at being able to sit on the floor without feeling a single stray piece of Lego or Playmobil piercing me in the backside, and watched a movie.
And then we went for a walk at 2am, and lay on the floor and looked up through the trees. For no reason other than the fact that I COULD. Take that, Tommy Lee.
Some people may feel that this post indicates that I am now basically sad and middle-aged and some may even dare to suggest that I'm a complete bit of a control freak.
But I feel SO relaxed. Life's been so chaotic and unpredictable lately, and some days I feel like I'm just barely hanging on to it by my fingernails. And I can't think of anything that soothes that sort of angst more effectively than knowing everything is Just So.
I'm totally Rock and Roll. Right?
Sounds like a little piece of heaven… 🙂
I think it sounds like bliss. When can I move in so I can have my turn?
Ooh I want a white board. On the other hand my Filofax has it all and more and I’m still not doing the stuff I put on the lists. Ms Losinit of Overwhelmington
Hope you manage to keep hold of the calm feeling for a while yet!
That looks incredibly organised. I need hubby & The Boy to give me an afternoon so that I can sort out our house, it’s just madness.
At what point did you throw the TV out of the window?
At my rate I’d need a week to accomplish all that. Wow!
Love the collection of Converses! 🙂
Ha – I love it!
I don’t care whether the plastic toys are segregated or not but noone comes between me and my trusty whiteboard OR my several oragnisational notebooks 😉
or even organisational notebooks!
Clearly I’m also a control freak about spelling.
you are SOOOOO rock and roll!!!!!!! Awake at 2am on a Saturday night??!! I was in bed asleep by 10pm……
I also love your toy box organisational skills but then I am borderline OCD about such stuff 😉
Don’t worry, you are what I used to be before I became well and truly middle-aged and gave in to the inevitable chaos that the rest of my family intimidate me with. I have a 2 week menu for the kids on my white-board and I stick to it most of the time. It saves me thinking about it and trying to remember what they had last night!
PS I am jealous that you have that many colours of converse!
Ha! It really was.
Well, so long as you promise not to make a mess…
I stopped looking in my Filofax. And my PDA. And phone. And Outlook. But this is the kitchen – I can’t miss it!
I give it two days, max.
It’s impossible to achieve while children are in the house.
I just dusted it. More rock and roll. Probably.
Ah, my shoes. I should probably own more grown-up shoes but, well, I don’t.
Control freaks are welcome here, amigo.
I am not OCD. I am completely normal, despite what my best friend might say.
I will never give in. I find mess REALLY stressful, I can’t bear it!
White boards are the best! We got one to keep a record of all our jobs on a few weeks ago, and it’s a great way of keeping sight of everything.
And I LOVE the collection of converse!
Oh, and on Saturday night I was in a hotel with 9 of my girlfriends. There was wine. All of us were in bed and asleep before midnight. Yes, we’re THAT rock and roll!
Oh I completely get that. You can face the world again when all that is organised and done.
Who cares if it’s odd 🙂 (And… well…)
I am green with envy on so many accounts. Can you imagine the chaos in my house? I tried to bring order to it last week pending the visits of both my in laws and my 15yo’s girlfriend (for the first time) on Saturday. My mother in law is a mess magnet, she sits at the table in my kitchen and stuff piles up around her. She was lucky to survive. This week I shall be taking a room at a time and imposing order in anticipation of the festive season…if anyone objects I shall set my eldest upon them, we call him the Cod (mainly cos I mispronounced OCD at him when he was reorganising the supermarket trolleys). Sally, this post made me drool…I long for such order. Apologies for lengthy comment.
Sally, I’d like to invite you to stay at mine for a week or two – my life needs this kind of attention!
My idea of bliss! Besides – rock’n’rocl is all about doing exactly what you want – so you;re up there as a real grooving chick.
errrrrrrrr
(1) you have toooooooo many Converse – says she who has none 😉
I do have about 16 pairs of MBTs though 🙂
(2) You are far too tidy – compared to me 😉
(3) that lounge looks like something out of a magazine – I want one!!!
Great post – I NEED a tidy weekend – I have about 6 months worth of post to open 🙁
Liska xxx
As you are so obviously good at it, could you come and organise me now please. 🙂 I’m at that arghhh everything is so messy stage and whatever I do nothing improves it!
Enjoy your bit of calm. 🙂
I see me on that board with my pet name!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happiness for ever
Amazing weekend! The job I’m returning to in December basically allows me to use a whiteboard, multi-coloured post-its and sometimes even a flipchart to organise other people. I’m a lucky woman.
Ah, I had a weekend of stupidly late nights. And now I sort of want to lay down and die. I’m too old for this staying up late talking nonsense.
It’s not odd. Probably.
Oooh. I love the prospect of a good challenge. Of course I say that because I have one child and no husband. Even I might quake in the face of a large and lively family!
*zips up suitcase* I’m on my way!
Hurrah!
1. There is no such thing.
2. There is no such thing.
3. Only by firelight.
x
I am feeling SO calm, still. I do love a good tidy.
Er, yes, of course. You’re in my heart, you’re on my whiteboard, TT.
Lucky girl!
Wow- major Converse collection jealousy! Slightly off topic but love the wallpaper behind the white shelves, where’s it from? And you’re right, things do look better in their right place. I love the moment when Esmae’s in bed, her toys are away and there’s just… silence.
Erm. How can I put this? I’ll break it gently. Obviously I wasn’t going to be the first to comment because what I have to say could cause alarm. But. Brace youself. Here’s the situation – there’s a DVD on your bookshelf called Bandslam. It’s facing the wrong way.
*snigger*
*sniggers a bit more*
*collapses in a heap*
Obviously, OBVIOUSLY, I cannot let that kind of slur go unchallenged.
There’s a reason. The box to that DVD is broken and if I have it the right way you can see it’s broken. My aversion to broken-ness outweighs the direction issue but I’m sure you can imagine the careful thought that went into that choice, and the time spent examining the issue from all angles.
cough.
Isn’t the fact that you actually have Bandslam on DVD much more concerning that the way it’s facing 😉
I am jealous. Firstly of your converse collection, and secondly of that whiteboard! Inspired i mean, not jealous…. honest.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
I love the white board idea.
I’ve been toying with the notion of creating a mock blackboard, pinboard, or wipeboard on one of my bedroom walls for to-dos and ideas. I’m torn between it helping me sleep, and it keeping me awake, plus whether in execution it will actually look very naff.
Anyway, must go, I’m off to disinfect my skirting boards (I so wish that was a joke).
What are the skirting boards infected with, exactly?
Arf. I do love a good pair of Converse.
No, I was just glad you didn’t notice the whole Hangover/Hot Fuzz DISASTER.
Umm, somewhere incredibly cool like… Homebase?
There’s nothing more we like than sorting the sock drawer. Who cares if it’s not rock’n’roll.