OK, it is gripe time once again here within my Random Thoughts. Take a look at this picture...
This is my kitchen counter. Can you name the things that do not belong on the counter? From left to right we have some tomato containers (ok), lunch bag (maybe), green bag containing a duvet cover for the daughter's bed (no), light bulb (no), library books under the light bulb (no), mixer (yes), broken hair brush (no), blue chip clip (maybe), wooden massager (no), paper towels (yes), misc receipts (no) and at the far right the shock button for the new shock collar we bought for our doberman (maybe). I have a big problem with clutter. Our family sees an empty flat surface and there is some primal urge to fill it up. No empty space on flat surfaces, that is their motto. Let's move on shall we...
This is a little stand that my mom bought us a while back. Now I will grant you that this item is made to hold stuff, but it is constantly filled. Here we have a CD (the son's), a Bible (the son's), a guitar tuner (the son's), a book (the son's) and a few other items. Not pictured here are the items that are on the bottom shelf and also the items that have fallen off the top surface to make room for the current items that are there. On the floor are a dvd, a few books, a magazine or two and a handheld game. Moving on...
This is the divider between our kitchen area and the dining room. This looks pretty good compared to normal. There is an out of place lime green hair band and a book on the far right. The pencil sharpener on the far left is normally there. In case you are wondering, the brown cup-like thing toward the right is my maté cup from Argentina. On to the dining room...
This us usually pretty bad. This is our smaller bookshelf that we got in the scratch and dent section of Ikea while in Texas. Let's go from right to left this time shall we? We have a bicycle helmet (the son's), my old Texas license plates for the Buick (that the kids wanted me to keep), a toy set of play-dough (the daughter's), an mp3 player (the son's), and some kleenex (normally there) along with a pencil box and a decorative lamp. There is still a little space left here so the kids are slacking. Let's look at our bigger book shelf...
Now here is where I come in for the blame game. This is usually where I deposit my keys, sunglasses, and items kept in my pockets after coming home from work. Also up here is a small coin bank that my grandma gave the kids and some bills that I will pay on Monday. The other items are not so out of place. I think this flat surface is too high for the kids to fill (yet). Moving on to our bedroom.
This is our dresser. It is usually pretty bad. The clock on the left is usually there as are my head bands on the far right. Everything else is just clothes or bags of clothes. There is a figurine in there somewhere. I honestly don't know whose socks those are. In the right photo is our cedar chest that sits on my side of the bed and usually has my stuff on it exclusively. Here we have a clock radio (that I really only use for the radio part), the book I am currently reading and a pile of clothes in various forms of cleanliness. Usually I have a t-shirt or two and a pair of sweats or pajama bottoms folded here along with the shorts that I wear while on the treadmill. I try to wear these items more than on day to cute down on laundry. No surface in our bedroom goes unused, even if they aren't exactly flat...
Our dog's cages usually hold items as well. Nina's cage usually has a laundry basket or two on it and poor little Oreo usually has to sleep while looking up at the wife's sodoku puzzle book (and for some reason in this picture, a yo-yo). The daughter's room is usually pretty bad...
She has more than one flat surface in her room but they all pretty much look like this one. Sometimes the son offers to clean her room for her and then it looks better however even their bathroom's flat surfaces remain cluttered...
Here we have some pretend Batman shaving foam on the left (with the pretend razor being on the far right). The brush is ok here but the decorative clear plastic cube containing pennies seems out of place. The eye drops there actually belong to my wife's sister and they have been there for over a week (maybe 2).
Here are our washer and drier. This looks pretty good actually. I cleaned it off while the rest of the family was on vacation in July and placed all those containers in the cabinets you see to the upper left but they have migrated back down to the flat surfaces.
Now that the tour is complete, let me tell you a few things. For one thing, this hatred of empty flat space cannot be solved with more empty flat surfaces. We had many more flat surfaces in our house in Texas and they were equally as cluttered. Buying more shelves will not help us, they will just be filled with more stuff that does not belong on them. This is something that has to be fixed by sheer will power (or threatening of punishment in the case of the kids). I seem to recall as a kid always filling up part of the top and bottom stairs (also a flat surface). I would also like to let you know that since I started posting this blog and the wife saw the first picture, she is no longer speaking to me. I will have you know however that I warned her multiple times that, "the flat surface blog entry is coming" but it did not stir her to action (other than to restate that she needed more shelves, a point that I successfully defended against [that is, if you count a glare, a growl and then completely being ignored by the wife as a successful defence, {which I do}]). Those of you who go to our church, if you see us sitting a little further apart than normal, this is why.
Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.
Jon
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