Project Paradise

So here I am with this determination to take one step at a time, to Do The Next Thing  in this upcoming year, and I’m left in a bit of a quandary. What, exactly, is the “next” thing? I mean, how can I do the next thing if I haven’t even determined the first thing yet? I’m pretty sure if I don’t have a plan, this do the next thing mission will morph into just another variation of do that same old thing, which looks a whole lot like plain old ordinary housewifery. Not exactly the mission.

The husband, quite by accident, provided me with the plan. Right before the new year, we replaced the upstairs heat pump. Early in the morning on installation day, I heard the telltale creak of the hinges on the attic stairs as Mr. Prep Work himself prepared the way for the workmen. And I cringed…

I cringed because the man and I are an organizational mismatch. He is an outie, and I’m an innie. He likes his stuff plopped front and center. I like my stuff secured behind a door, curtain, or screen. I’m even happier if said stuff is stuffed in a box behind that door, curtain, or screen…An attic, therefore, is Innie Paradise.

And I have two of them. Plus accessible storage under my eaves… plus a garage… plus a used- to- be playhouse turned hideaway in the backyard…

You would think, with all of that storage, the man would not have had to clear a path to the AC unit in the attic. But he did, and when he said, “Deb- or- ah” with three syllables, I knew what it meant. It meant, “Deb-or-ah, I have pulled some of your schtuff  front and center and I am not going to reload it into Innie Paradise until you sort it out.”

   I now had my “first thing”. Honestly, I would have been very content to leave my stuff sequestered behind that attic door… maybe stuffed in better boxes. It wasn’t affecting my day to day life. But I grudgingly started, with the help of the practical daughter, to evaluate the plunder. And what we discovered got my wheels turning.

And...

I have a plan…