I may be drinking wine.
I’ll let you decide.
I am DONE with a basement full of SHIT that is worth $234,957,478,470 – but yet can never be played with because:
a. “Mama, I can’t find all the pieces.”
b. “This part is broken.”
c. “I don’t know what to do” – because there’s too many things to choose from, duh.
d. “This is for babies.”
e. “I can’t find the charger.” One year later, “I still can’t find the charger.”
f. “I don’t like that anymore.”
g. “It’s not fair that we only have one, and Lyle is playing with it! I want one!”
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU*K. No. I am so freaking done.
As you know from following my amazingly non-consistent blog here, I have switched over to ‘experience’ gifts, and we had a KILLER time last year at Christmas in Colorado. But, that means that I didn’t purge ALL.THE.SHIT. before our trip.
Somehow another year has passed before my eyes. Veda is a toddler. Ollie actually grew hair. We’ve *almost* adapted to life in the midwest. But, I still haven’t purged the basement.
(pours wine)
Guess what I’m doing right now?
dun. dun. dun.
Did you see the picture up there? That is what is happening. No. That is not what the basement looked like an hour ago. Everything was in its place…. until I somehow needed to accomplish something. I swear you could see vacuum lines earlier today, but what fun would that picture be? Exactly. I’m here to show you REAL LIFE. So let’s get to work. But, alas, Rome was not built in a day, my friends. After tearing EVERYTHING apart, I laughed at myself and retreated upstairs. I may have overwhelmed myself on day 1.
Time Out: I do have a plan, here. I’m not just drinking and throwing shit out. (Although, that may get it done faster.)
Our ‘Experience Gift’ this year for Christmas is redoing our basement into a ‘big kid’ area from a little kid play room. Yes, this requires buying a ton of age-appropriate crap. We’ll be investing in a sectional couch, smart TV, Xbox, air hockey table, basketball arcade game, and an art/drafting table/craft area for Scarlett. Our family will *hopefully* chip in and fulfill the kids’ wishlists so that John and I can cross off the big items. But a basement overhaul cannot be completed unless the current state of the bottom floor changes.
What have I accomplished thus far? I’ve created a bonfire-worthy pile of kid crap to sort.
We’ll be donating a lot to local charities (The Ronald McDonald House, shelters, and churches), gifting some to neighbors and friends, and saving anything and everything that will continue to be loved by our little ones. Yes, we will still have a lot of stuff, but, with my new layout, I’m hoping to keep things better organized.
The best part of everything is that none of the kids are fighting me. They are actively wanting this change.
So cheers to moving forward in this parenting journey. Instead of having a play room centered around a play kitchen, we will soon have a game room with a corner play kitchen. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t crazy happy about giving my big kids a place where they feel big-a place that their friends will love, too.