Nagging Until it Hurts

M and I do a lot of dancing around each other.

On our good days we do our best NOT to annoy each other. I look the other way when he drops a couple of paper towels on the floor to clean up dog pee and walks away. (I pick them up after him and 409 the floor without comment.) He insists that he would eventually pick them up--he was just waiting for the paper towel to do it's job of soaking up the mess and drying for easier clean-up. (Yeah, ugh....leaving a pee soaked paper towel on the floor for 24-hours is the worst of his habits.) HE ignores my spending habits and the fact that he has to clean up a lot my financial shortfalls and messes. (I think these worst of our habits.)

I generally try not to rock the boat. There are times, usually when I'm in a bad mood about something else, that I push the envelope. I did that today. I wasn't really mad about anything else, I just didn't want another Saturday to go by without getting some stuff done around here. I voiced my desire for M to clean out our.....HIS....closet last month. MY plan is for the closet to be cleaned out and organized so that we can get rid of the dressers in our room. A good closet is going to waste while we barely have enough room to navigate the limited pathway between our bed and the dressers which are clothes storage receptacles and that's about all. I stopped using my dresser a long time ago except as a catch-all for unmatched socks, important documents like the kids report cards, and the top to store the clothes that I do wear. M has clothes in his dresser that he hasn't worn since we were first-time parents except for one drawer of T-shirts.



I've been after him for years to go through and get rid of stuff. He probably would have complied if it had been his own decision and not me trying to get him to do it!

I woke up this morning raring to go. (I love Saturdays because I get a HOT shower.) M made pancakes for the kids while I puttered around the house picking things up and vacuuming. (Stuff that needed to be done, but more an example of someone working and that I wasn't going to be a weekend slacker.) I made a list of chores for the kids to complete this weekend, mostly kitchen-related. Then, I dropped the bomb on M. I've had bags for M to take to Goodwill for a couple of weeks. I knew he had errands to run that included a grocery store run and a trip to Grease Monkey to get my oil changed. I casually asked him what his plans were and he confirmed the previous. I suggested--okay, told him--that I would like for him to take my stuff to Goodwill. In the same breath, I suggested--okay, told him--that it would be great if he would go through his stuff to include in our donation. He grumbled, but when I got back from my trip to get the needles I like for binding sewing he was doing it.... Well, wonders never cease!!

The closet is still a disaster and I need a dust mask to work in there, but we've got a good start. I'm noticing stuff that I bought years ago on clearance for Halloween and Easter, three totes of more clothes that we've not missed in years and probably don't fit, and a bunch of toys that M took away from Z in punishment. There was also a pair of size 13 Vans tennis shoes that I bought in error for Z that I couldn't return because I lost the receipt. S could have worn them a shoe size ago so I'll have to remember them for A.

Oh, and I discovered a whole stack of quilting magazines, books, and the instruction manual to my sewing machine that I thought were lost forever!

I'm being a baddie as I sit here and blog. I'm grinning because the kids all wanted to go run errands with their dad and no amount of dissuading them could get them to stay home--boring as heck at Grease Monkey, no lunch out, and "I'm not buying you anything." The sacrifice of being out with their grumpy dad probably had something to do with my list of chores. The house is quiet--no kids fighting... I'm as happy as a lark even if I'm doing laundry and cleaning a closet.