I! HATE! DESPISE! and DETEST! sorting and organizing someone else's stuff!!!
My mother called at 8 too early o'clock (remember? I'm on vacation!) and told me that she needs all of her greeting cards and stationery. Oh, and yeah, she'd like that today! Since I'm on vacation and have nothing to do! AND could I please stop at the post office and buy her two books of stamps.
To understand the full depth of this request, let me explain. My mother is the pack rat of all pack rats. However, she is an incredibly disorganized pack rat. As we were going through all of her stuff after she moved to the nursing center, we would find handfuls of birthday/anniversary/you name it cards sans envelopes. They appeared in random places--underwear drawer, with stacks of magazines, tucked in bookshelves between books, etc. Almost always without envelopes.
When we started cleaning out her desk we found the envelopes! Two drawers full of them!
My husband and I decided that we were just going to take two boxes, put the cards in one and envelopes in the other and deal with them at a later date. The time has come obviously.
At this moment, (as I blog and eat my homemade chicken noodle soup) my dining room table is COVERED with piles of cards (now sorted by type) and stacks of envelopes in varying sizes. My next task is to try to match cards with the correct size envelopes without tearing my hair out.
Wishing YOU a stress free afternoon!
UPDATE:
And if you thought I was exaggerating, may I present the evidence of 3 1/2 hours of work:
The box on the left has the remainder of the unmatched envelopes, the two piles of cards in the middle are the wrong sizes for the envelopes, and the box on the right is stuffed full of cards that have been mated with envelopes and sorted by type. The two small piles in the top middle are post cards and thank you cards, respectively.
7 comments:
WOW! My grandmother was JUST like that...one must wonder why someone needs THAT many cards? I bet you are about ready for that baby to come! :0)
Hi,
I dunno, maybe I am really evil, but when I take time off from work, most of the time I won't tell my mother (she lives just a few miles down the road, and I call her frequently).
I need some down time at home!
Am I evil?
Hope not.
NB--You aren't kidding about being ready for that baby! I'm also ready to have my real daughter back. The crabby one can stay at the hospital!
Auntie--I don't think you are evil! Unfortunately, my mom has taken guilt trip to a whole new level. Had I not done what she asked, she would have started making call to other family members and then possibly the pastor.
Ummmm... I have a dining room that has turned into the tax office. It was going to be a weekend project that has been going on for a month now. Would you PLEASE come organize it for me????
LC--If it weren't for this grandbaby that just keeps not coming, I might come help you, just so I could get warm! It's been soooo cold here for so long, that my fingers and toes feel like they are made of ice.
Hey, it's my lucky day!! I have a card that I need an envelope for! You surely have one in all of those!! But how would I ever get it? I'm just kidding anyway. Well, I do need an envelope but I'll just ask for an extra one at the store where I bought it. I'm sure they have an extra one.
AND I do try to have cards on hand but your mother took it to a whole new level, hm? *smile*
Ok,you have a trash can, right? Take the whole mess and drop it right into the can. I'm not seeing a problem here. ;) Then again I am the queen of decluttering and the anti-thesis of packrat so maybe I'm a bad person to ask. lol!
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