A Room is Cleaned....Again

So, the last time I tracked out I did something that took several hours- I organized the boxes that were piled in the guest/computer room. I did this because Justin was coming to visit and I wanted to make the room as comfortable as possible for him. I knew that there was no way I could get rid of all the boxes, but I could try to pack as many away into the closet as I could and unpack a few. We moved in the last few days of August and they had simply been left to themselves in the computer room. Chris and I could each get to our computers and that was what mattered.

So, fast forward to my October/November track out. I unpacked a bunch of stuff onto the bookshelf (which was a lot). Then, over the next day I completely filled the closet with boxes and what not. This way, things were out of the way and I didn't have to worry about it. There were still boxes that had to sit out in the bedroom, but far less. Justin came and went. Andy and Jamie came to visit and left. And one day, all my wonderful stacking of boxes so that they took up the least amount of the room came to a screeching halt. What happened, you may ask. Well, Chris happened to them. I love the man. I am thrilled to be marrying him, but he lost a CD-ROM and that was the end of the nicely stacked boxes in the room and the closet.

A week or so went by while Chris grumbled and moved boxes around and rooted around in them. Some evenings, when he was particularly frustrated I would hear random exclamations using four letter words. I kept quiet. I didn't want to get in the middle, as I know how I get frustrated when I lose something. It really came as no surprise to me, though, that the discs went unfound. It annoyed me in the back of my head that the two days of hard work of stacking and organizing boxes was now undone, but there wasn't much I could do. I mean, there was absolutely NO WAY the words: "Stop messing up my stacked boxes!" would come from my mouth. I did, from time to time, ask if he wanted me to help. Sometimes, on the weekends, I would look around in some of the boxes just to see if I could find what he was missing. No such luck.

Oddly enough, about three weeks ago I was looking for Kingdom Hearts (for PS2) in the room. Chris had gone to Dean's for Game Night and I was on my own. I'm not one for just sitting and playing a video game, but I do love this one. I had recently had a lunch time conversation with one of my students about the game and suddenly had the itch to play. I walk into the Messy, Non-Stacked, Room Full of Boxes and figured out where to start looking (the box clearly marked "DVD's"). As went through the boxes I found a disc that I was pretty sure Chris had been feverishly looking for. When I called over to Dean's and got Chris on the line, it turned out I was right! I FOUND IT! I rule. No really, I do- Chris even admitted it. :) I also (easily) found the Kingdom Hearts disc and left the room to go play.

Here I am tracked out, again (thank GOD!). Andy and Jamie are coming for a visit this weekend because Chris won four free tickets to the circus from work. The room still had tons of boxes all crazy around the room. I finally got tired of it tonight, though. I didn't want the room to be crappy for Andy and Jamie and I was REALLY tired of looking at it. It bothered me that the box with all our DVD's was not easy to reach. In fact, I really wanted to find a place for them. So, I started in the closet and put the luggage away (my suitcases stack inside themselves) and started to restack things. Then I started to unpack some of the boxes that were already open and half full and then consolidate what I could into one box. This was a good idea (she says as she pats herself on the back) because I could reorganize some of the random computer parts into one box and then stack it in the closet. Hooray! I also managed to completely move our books around on the shelf so that there was enough room to unpack all the DVD's and Play Station games would fit on one shelf! Hip, Hip, Hooray! And the end result looks a bit like this:

You'll notice that the closet looks a little crazy near the back. It's really not, but the cat carrier is sitting on top of something that is not a box and not a nice and flat surface. The purple bag appeared shortly after I thought I was done with the closet and therefore I simply tossed in last. Other than that, the closet is stacked neatly and is very full. There are only a couple boxes left in the room itself, but since I could fit them snugly against the wall, that's where they will stay until such time as Patti comes down to pick up the Buick and drive it back to Michigan. When the car is gone, we can finally use our garage we went here for all the stuff in the closet and in the room. Plus, I will finally be able to get ride of the storage area near the old apartment and move that stuff into the garage. I like the idea of saving $63 a month. I like the idea of being able to use our closet even more, though. Either way, the room is cleaned up....AGAIN.