Cleaning Out The Back Room

(EARLY APRIL) A few years ago my husband and I had a three season room built onto the back of the house. During the winter it becomes a storage room. In the Fall we begin filling it up with things that can no longer sit outside as they did in the summer, and the room also gets filled with anything we don’t know what to do with at the time, we just open the back door and chuck it into the back room and we say we will worry about it when Spring comes around. By the time Winter comes, shovels, salt, and Christmas decorations are added to the mix. We also put a lot of the grandkids’ toys back there as we are running out of room to store them (toy boxes and toy bins are overflowing).
I’m embarrassed, but I have to admit that by the time Spring rolls back around that room is a complete mess with almost every inch of space packed with ‘stuff’, and it is once again a daunting task to sort through everything and find a ‘home’ for it so that we can start making good use of this extra living space.
I also get tired of things very fast, so I am constantly rearranging furniture in the house, and the back room is no different. So when we are clearing things out back there and making room, I use that as an opportunity to move furniture around and do a ‘big cleaning’. This of course brings endless arguments from Ray, he readily agrees to clearing a space to live in, but he cannot fathom why I feel the need to constantly change things and move furniture around. And I cannot understand why he can’t just keep his complaints to himself, nod his head in agreement, and put his muscle power to good use. This is not a one-time occurrence, this is every Spring we have the same quarrel. Now, I know the man is a Saint, and there’s a lot he has to tolerate in dealing with me, but I still don’t understand why he can’t just suck it up one more time and do this for me without being disagreeable! And I see no reason to have this same tug-of-war each and every Spring!
Well, with the room only half finished we put it (and the debate) on the back burner.


(EARLY MAY) I took matters into my own hands. I finished cleaning out the back room myself, but I had to recruit my daughter Ellie to help rearrange the furniture (this stubborn mule was not going to make a request of Ray). We have a vintage washstand in the back room that I moved to the other side of the room by myself but then had to enlist Ellie’s help to get it over the threshold and through the door to the kitchen (it’s not heavy but the marble top with the attached mirror is not secured to the base and it kept tipping off the base!). Then Ellie and I cleaned out a big wardrobe I had in the dining room, slid it across the floor and out into the hall, where it sat because we couldn’t slide it on the rug. Ray came in then from his outdoor chores, took one look at the washstand sitting in the middle of the kitchen, and the big wardrobe blocking the hallway, and he looked at me like I was crazy (which by that point I did feel like I was going a little nuts). I don’t know if he felt sorry for me then or if he just didn’t want a repeat of the same old argument, because with the help of my older daughter Katie’s boyfriend he moved the wardrobe out of the hall, through the kitchen, and into the back room without one complaint or eye roll (he did have an evil little smirk though, but I resisted a strong urge to slap that grin off his face). Then Ellie and I moved the washstand into the dining room. And I’m very happy with the rearrangement, I have plenty of storage now in the backroom, and we have a lot more space in the dining room without the big wardrobe there. And all is right in my little world.
Well, except for the fact that I now have the task of finding a spot for everything that was once housed in the wardrobe!



Did we tackle everything on the Weekend Forecast List?
Well…
Saturday:
Hook up water connection to outdoor sink ~ Mission Accomplished! (With Ray making numerous trips to Home Depot!)
Finish cleaning out back room ~ Mission Accomplished!
Rearrange furniture ~ Mission Accomplished!
Change motor on back deck awning ~ ☹ (Unfortunately the sink hook-up took too long and then it rained the next day.)
Sunday:
Plant flowers at cemetery ~ ☹ (Rained out.)
Beach/boardwalk ~ ☹ (Rained out.)

But all in all, it was a fairly productive weekend!