FYV Lesson 2: Reclaiming My House - Domestic Goddess

LESSON 2:     Who Are You?      July 1, 2013

PROMPT 2 - (Writing Based)   Write a recent story...incorporate who you are into the story...

PROMPT 3 - (Picture Based)    Take a series of photos that tell a story...

I combined these two prompts and wrote a story with photos.

Reclaiming My House

‘Domestic Goddess’ is not on my list of character traits; I’m not sure I even qualify for ‘Side-tracked Home Executive’. Two areas that were forever neglected – I’d get to them “one day.” – were the pantry and the laundry room.  When I retired, my first goal was to tackle these two mostly ignored areas.

Where to start?  Have mercy! The laundry room was full of clothes – piles of them! Clean piles, dirty piles, piles to be mended.. But that wasn’t all! Cleaning supplies, candles, old shoes, when I did buy this new toilet seat? Tools! Cloe, the cat, had even staked out her spot and settled.

I could do this. Deep breaths. Remove the cat. I could really do this. More deep breaths. Move the cleaning supplies, old shoe, tools out to the kitchen. Move piles into new piles. I could see the floor! Wow! I don’t remember it being that color.  Out with the old shelves, in with new white shelves. Out with the storage boxes, in with a new 6 cube cubbie. Put in cloth boxes in aqua, yellow and mint green – colors of nature, reminds me of the beach. Woven baskets for extra wash cloths and towels.

Add some pictures, an old scrub board, my Grandmother’s flat iron and a basket of vintage clothes pins. What an improvement!

 

Now motivated, I turned to the pantry.  Uh -oh…lots of deep breaths needed here! First out with the old – and I mean really old stuff!   Cans from - are you kidding me?  Out!   Empty packages of crackers and cookies!   Out!   What's this?  A jar of those electrical thingys Hubby uses at work!   Shh - out!   A tool bag?  In my pantry?  Out!

Move the mops, brooms, etc to a wall bracket in the laundry room. Clean the shelves. 

Add baskets for grouping like items, add my collection of vintage tins to hold chips, crackers and cookies. (Love my tins!) Fill old Ball jars with beans, rice, pasta. Wow!

 

Finally they are completed – clean, organized and neat.  No longer neglected, they are functional and hold vintage treasures. I am proud of them. I am proud of me!

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