Fete prep

Our school's annual fete is next Saturday, and I'm using it to full advantage. There are now two large boxes of toys and a box of children's books in the car, ready for delivery to the school hall tomorrow. There is another box of toys which are missing parts, and this week's mission is to find the parts and move them on out the door. I have also started on a second box of books.

The kids' rooms look like bombsites (i.e. pretty much the same as yesterday), but bombsites with slightly less debris. Tomorrow and Tuesday the short people are at school & preschool, and while i generally try to make those days serious-get-down-to-work-days, I have a feeling that a large proportion may well be spent on disappearing a few more items.*

We've had an ongoing issue with the mess in the children's rooms, and I'm convinced that it's as much a matter of them having too much stuff as anything else. I'm sure they've inherited my lack of OCD tendencies, and probably a good helping of their father's hoarding instincts, but it was a very telling moment when Miss Tizz told me that it was too hard, and that if I would clean up her room I could throw out anything I liked.

Interestingly, I had a blitz on their rooms several months ago, and filled three large garbage bags with whatever I could grab before they did (there was a long lead up to this - it wasn't like they weren't warned!). The bags were tied up and have been stored in the office so there was no sly pilfering. As part of the purging today, I opened the bags, and they were happy for at least half of the items to go in the fete box. So I have now reclaimed three garbage bags' worth of space in the office, and it's not all back on their floors.

We still have a long way to go, but I like to think we're on the way to a saner, less-cluttered existence.

In other news: the Earthbox spinach withdrew beneath the cover, and I thought it was done for, but it's popped back up this weekend, so maybe, just maybe, it will survive. The capsicum, peas & snowpeas all seem to be doing ok, although I have noticed snails hanging around drooling.

* It's just occurred to me (being the organised person that I am) that this Thursday & Friday is Miss Tizz's school camp, and that although she's opted not to stay overnight it will give me another two days to work on her room :) So I now have a plan of action: concentrate on the X-man's room at the beginning of the week, and the girl-child's room at the end of the week. And I have no excuse not to tackle some of my own excess in between :)