I usually go through my file cabinet once a year after taxes are done and clean it out, shred, and make room for new things that belong there. Because we've been dividing our time between MD and NJ for the past three years, this annual shredding event hasn't happened during that time. So I started shredding on Monday and was reminded of one of the boys' favorite picture books If You Give a Mouse a Cookie when I found myself getting waylaid.
If you start some shredding, you'll probably shred and shred until the shredder overheats and you have to quit.
When you are taking the bag of shreddings to the bins, you'll go past the dining room table and see some things that should have been put where they belong (this year's tax file, a TV remote from MD that belongs with the TV, and a Christmas ornament that never got put away for some reason).
When you head to the cellar to put the Christmas ornament away, you see the small refrigerator that you have been meaning to unplug and clean out for about three years.
After cleaning out the refrigerator, you once again carry a bag of trash (and rotten carrots) out to the bins. When you come back inside you enter through the mud porch and see the mint plant that you have been meaning to re-pot for the past week. You go back outside to the root cellar where your potting supplies are located. You decide the root cellar is far too cluttered so you give it a quick clean-up and organize a few things.
It's still a bit of a mess but will get cleaned out much more thoroughly later in the spring. You re-pot the mint.
Your day really was like that book! So funny how easily that happens.
ReplyDeleteWhat a perfect, perfect Give-a-Mouse-a-Cookie kind of day! (And that mint plant looks so healthy and lovely in its new pot.)
ReplyDelete(And why is there always that ONE Christmas ornament that eludes being packed away with the rest????) XO
This post... I love it! :)
ReplyDeleteThat mint plant does look so happy in its new pot! (and I purposely leave one Christmas ornament out all year... or at least that's what I tell people who notice that one errant ornament! lol)
What a great post, Bonny! Most of my days are like that, but I have often attributed it to lack of focus or "squirrel!" syndrome - ha ha. It's nice to know that other people suffer from it as well. It looks like it led to lots of productivity on your part, which is not always true for me. This post made me smile.
ReplyDeleteThere's a mother/daughter knitting podcast I listen to that frequently references this phenomenon -- they call it something like "mouse-a-cookie-ing." It seems to me that you well deserved a cookie (or two) along with that cup of tea, so make sure you have one the next time you do all that cleaning and tidying!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a fun post and it reminds me of how Dale approaches tasks. I tend to be a bit more focused and stick to one thing at a time. Our community has a shredding event twice/year, makes it really easy to shred a whole lot at once.
ReplyDeleteHa! I think cookies would be an excellent idea only without shredding. I once burned out and ruined a shredder in my zeal to rid my husband's home office of excess paper.
ReplyDeleteI have been known to overheat the shredder!! Gah. I did a HUGE purge for the move and I need to go through and cull again and not wait 16 years...yup. Wasn't pretty!
ReplyDeleteOh Bonny, what a great reminder of just HOW CRAZY your life has been these past three years. and I laughed. also, I hope you had some cookies later!
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