ANNIVERSARY

This week is our 37th wedding anniversary.  The years went past in an instant. 

What does this have to do with organizing?

Well, for 37 years I have been cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, paying bills, we have been taking care of each other when one of us was ill - or each other when we both were, and in general dealing with the day to day matters of life.  This had taken a lot of organizing.

We had both lived with our parents until we married.  Before the wedding we went ahead being the organized people we thought we were - we got an apartment, bed, bedroom furniture, living room furniture, borrowed a folding table and chairs for the kitchen.  We bought the dishes we wanted, the matching glasses, tableware, sheets, and pillowcases.  We had carpeting installed in the bedroom and living room and vinyl flooring in the kitchen.  We had the utilities started - sometimes I went and waited for whoever was coming - at least once my mom did.  (I had my first meal at the place we still get Chinese takeout from while waiting for something or other - the place was in view of the apartment and I stood out at the curb watching while they cooked - so I could see if someone came to the door of the apartment.  I had not brought the silverware there yet and had to get a plastic fork to use.)

Have you noticed what is missing from the list of what we bought? I made the bed before our wedding so it would be ready when we returned from our honeymoon.  We planned to bring our individual pillows from home, so we did not buy any.  We married, went on our honeymoon and returned home somewhere after midnight.  As we drove home we realized that we had no pillows and we had no towels.  We stopped at my in laws (as they lived closer to us than my parents) and husband slipped into the house without waking them and took his pillows (we shared them) and borrowed some towels.  See - no matter how organized one thinks they are, they are not.

I had to use a public laundry as there was none in our building.  The first time I fell behind we resolved the problem by buying a third set of sheets and pillow cases so I didn’t have to run out and do the laundry on the weekend when we had time together.  We later also lost a weeks worth of clothes, towels and bed linens there when someone left a lipstick in the dryer and it melted all over our stuff!  The biggest problem is that we both are short and have trouble getting clothes - so replacement was not easy.  We dealt with this by getting a small, portable washer and matching dryer.  After this I spent most of the week doing the laundry as the washer could hold about a week of shirts for either of us - so we had to do a lot of loads - and the dryer did not vent to the outside, but rather into the room through the lint filter in the door.  It took much longer to dry than a regular dryer and vented the heat into the room - horrible in summer.  The dryer did make a nice serving surface with a table cloth over it if we had company in - it easily pushed into the living room.

I used to clean the apartment on Friday nights.  Husband would be exhausted from working all week and would go to sleep early.  I would close the bedroom door and clean the bathroom and kitchen - within feet of the bedroom - and then the living room.  I only had to clean the bedroom when he was awake. 

We could not find bedroom curtains we liked, so I got my first sewing machine to make the curtains.  (One day soon I will get it fixed so I can use it again.  When we had the bed bugs in this house the wire in the cord seems to have melted or detached.)  We returned the living room furniture we had bought as there were problems and bought a new set of furniture.  We bought a kitchen set. We settled in. 

About 9 years in we bought this house - within extended walking distance of the apartment.  We planned to save money moving - we would bring as much as we could to the house on our own.  So we would fill the car and the van and bring the stuff here and unload it - by this time we had our craft business and all of the inventory and other items had to be moved here also.  On the weekend before we were to move, my sister and her husband joined us in moving things.  We would fill the 3 vehicles and drive them over and unload them.  Oh, did I mention that my sister had recently had my niece?  So the four of us loaded up at the apartment.  When we got to the house she would take care of niece - feeding, changing, etc. while the 3 of us unloaded.  After a couple of trips we thought we were okay and all went out for dinner.  They left.  We went back to moving stuff - and we realized that we were not going to get it done in time.  We called husband’s father - he came and helped us load up and unload once.  After that we were on our own.  The moving company came on Monday - they took the furniture, the books (9 feet of floor to ceiling shelving) and vinyl LPs.  Then we went back to finish.  Still not enough time.  So on Tuesday - the day we had to vacate - I was back alone taking out the last of the stuff - one of the best birthdays I have had.

Well, each problem, situation, and year we got a little better at keeping up with everything.  We learned that something will always happen to throw us off (like the recent computer mess) and that we just have to go with it and catch up after.  Our house is far from magazine perfect and I found out today that I have bought black markers 3 times - as I have 3 started packs - so we are not as organized as you might think.  One has to take life as it comes and do ones best. 

What’s next?  Another 37 years?  That would make me.... probably not.