Genie In the Keboard

If one day, when you’re shaking out the crumbs and debris from your keyboard, a genie popped out and gave you one wish to improve your life, what would you wish for?

I’m not talking about a lottery win, or becoming a bestselling novelist (we could all wish for those) but something that would help you practically on a day to day basis.

I know what I’d wish for – a self-tidying house.  I can cope with the cleaning – just about, but I hate having to wade through the mountain of belongings before I even get to the surfaces I need to clean.  It doesn’t help that both my husband and I are hoarders.  My weakness are newspapers and magazines. I don’t like to throw them away until I have read them in case I might read a snippet of something useful for a story, but I don’t always get the time to actually read them and the paper mountain rapidly builds.

Apart from that I think I live with the three most untidy males on the planet.  I mean, why would you put something away when you could drop it on the floor or sofa?

And I do try to train them – particularly my sons – I’m thinking of their future partners after all – but it’s like banging my head against a brick wall – repeatedly.

So a self-tidying house would free up a lot of my time in a day to day basis.

What would you wish for?

PS – rant over!

The Big Declutter

The last few weeks have been rather strange.

Leaving the job I've been at for the last eight years was a poignant experience.  I started there when my youngest was a baby and now he's in junior school - how the time has flown and how much things have changed since I first started.

My redundancy had been looming for so long that I was almost at the stage of just wishing it was over, but everyone gave me a good send off and so I ended up feeling rather sad.

And since then, have I had all the time in the world to get stuck into my wrting?  The short answer is a resounding no.

We go on holiday next week, which I'm really looking forward to - we didn't go away in the summer so we all deserve a good break.  We're off to Lanzarote so I'm hoping for some serious sunshine, swimming and some reading and writing.

But before all that I have to get rid of eight years of clutter.   We have a family of four coming to stay while we are  away, staying on until after we get back, and looking af the house, I was struggling to work out where we were all going to sleep.

We moved into this house eight years ago too - that was a busy year - and since then we have collected all sorts of clutter as the boys have grown and their bedrooms were a disgrace. 

So I spent the whole of last week sifting through lego, plastic toys, marbles, jigsaw pieces and a wool mill full of stray socks under beds.  The bedrooms now look sparkling and woe betide anyone if they mess them up again. 

This week I started on the spare bedroom and tomorrow - wish me luck - its the turn of the kitchen.

I did think that once I finished work I would be able to concentrate on builing up a business and doing some serious writing, but it seems that the house has taken over. 

And that's before I start packing.

I know its only been a week and a half but I don't think I could be a permanant housewife, and I'm hoping all this work now will free me up to do the things I want to do. 

One thing is for sure, once I get settled back after my holiday, I'm going to get myself into a routine.  Because I don't honestly see how writer's can write unless they are in a good routine.  I know this writer can't.

So its going to be a case of learning to switch off housework head and velcro my bum to my desk chair!

Wish me luck.

Linda