Thursday, March 3, 2011

Three Way Thursday with Maureen O. Betita


What are you thankful for?
Lately, I’m thankful that I finally manned up – womanned up? And brought in someone to help me tackle the clutter in my house. After several years of depression, health scares, diving into writing and going to numerous conventions, all needing costumes and assorted specialty things and all the free books I’ve gotten at conventions and trying to paint and giving up on partially painted rooms and avoiding chores except for the laundry save I could go a month without doing laundry and still have things to wear and…the clutter is spilling out of every shelve, table, box…

Deep breathe. Yeah, I’m really thankful I called her and she came and now? Now the husband and I are tackling this situation, one room at a time.

Ask me again in a month how I feel about it. ;-)

What are you thinking about?
            RT. H*ll, I’m dreaming about RT and the signing on Saturday. Have the oddest dream the other night where my three siblings and both parents were there to support me. By sitting in chairs a few feet from the table, saying nothing, but watching. I mean, it was seriously creepy! And the first person who wanted me to sign my book? Had a Norwegian name with more letters and syllables than I knew what to do with.
            Yeah, I woke up a bit glad to wake up!   

What are you thirsty for?
            After that dream? I’m thirsty for fans with simple names. Like Fred. And Jane. Bob. Ann. 

18 comments:

Kathleen said...

Congrats on starting Spring cleaning early, Maureen! You'd be surprised at how many of us have cluttered areas in our homes. Everytime we clean out one area, we start all over somewhere else. Have fun sorting through your treasures.

JoAnne Kenrick said...

Good for you, with the clutter clean up! I admire your head on attitude with it! You go girl xx
We've never had an issue with clutter, we move a lot and so are in the habit of only buying what we need, getting rid of stuff as it become surplus. It just makes it easier to move. And of course, we time we do move, a pile of stuff we don't need anymore will be sent to charity, and not into the new home.
At times, that does upset me -- there are things I should have saved, and held on to, but I didn't. I guess I have the opposite problem to you hehe do they have a name for that?
It's funny, when we moved into our first American home, we were like, 'wow we have no furniture to fill this house'. OF course, after four years of being here, we have stacks of furniture. So hopefully we never have to move back to the UK, because those houses wouldn't even fit half our furniture LOL

And, my name is nice and simple...just saying ;)

Author Leanne Dyck said...

I can't spell 'cat' when underpressure. What do I do? I hand a pen and a piece of paper to my reader and politely ask them to print their name, clearly.
Clutter. Oh, yeah, I can jump on that train. I just gave one box away and am working on another this month. Piece by piece is the key for me.

Redameter said...

I'm about to move, so i know all about clutter. And the paper shredding is giving my sinuses a fit. But it's got to be done. I know that.

Good luck with the spelling names and signing. I'm sure it will go very well.

Love and blessings
Rita

Maureen said...

Kathleen - At least it isn't a problem with dirt, not that my clutter isn't dusty, but there isn't any real filth surrounding it all. Just dust ontop of it all!

I'm really curious as to what she's going to come up with to help out with organizing...

Maureen said...

Joanne - I've been moved several times, but never had to do the move myself! That might have seen me cut down on it earlier!

I can't imagine moving overseas... I suppose I'd store more of my stuff!

The problem was started by the last move...from a 1700 square foot house, two car garage and a shed...to 1100 square feet, no garage, no shed. And half a mile from the beach so anything left outside will rust!

Maureen said...

Leanne - In the dream, I asked her to spell it for me...she rattled if off so fast I couldn't make sense of it. I had her write it... I could read her handwriting.

;-)

One of THOSE dreams!

Maureen said...

Rite, the husband is going through the paper. He gets so sentimental! Found the reciet last night of when he had to buy me shorts and a shirt to go home from the hospital in...and he got all teary-eyed.

I'm much more ruthless, but it's his job right now... Slow going!

Shiela Stewart said...

So now that you've gotten to your spring cleaning, wanna come to my house and get started in mine?? LOL

Great post!

P. Kirby said...

Gack.

We've got so much clutter that there are days I'm tempted to pile it all in the driveway, douse it in gasoline and add a lit match. PHOOM!!! Problem solved.

Best of luck with your signing!

Maureen said...

Sheila.... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Though, actually, I made some money for a few months cleaning other people's home... Then came home and didn't clean mine. For some reason, it's easier when it isn't my mess!

Maureen said...

P. Kirby - We have no kids, so all of this...treasure...is going to the nieces and nephews. Who I've told if they want to torch it and collect the insurance, I don't have a problem with that... ;-)

Anonymous said...

Husband is less sentimental than I, but I have gotten more ruthless about the boxes in recent years. We've moved a lot, sometimes across time zones, so I am experienced! I have pitched, tossed, organized, and sent to charity. Not that we don't get cluttered. We do. But we're really learning to be better about it.
Usually. :-)

We went from a 1800+ sqft to a house about the size of a 2bdrm apartment. BUT we really LIKE it! Luckly, we have effective storage in the garage. But man....just the Christmas decor takes up a lot of room!

Of course, as a scrapbooker, I have a lot of 'stuff'. But I now buy primarily ebooks, like JoAnne we have gotten into the habit of buying more or less just what we need (not just what we like, and I feel a lot better about the 'stuff' control.

Now, the kids' room is a whole other story......

Heather
Decadent Publishing

Maureen said...

I have a feeling once he gets through the paper cull, we'll sit and I'll ruthlessly dump a bunch more... I'm gonna research some storage sites soon!

My clutter room is next on the list, where the books lurk, the undone craft projects, the glitz and glitter of ideas... My territory!

Deena said...

I used to watch Clean Sweep religiously and take mental notes., then I bought the book. I'm great with EVERYTHING now... except for the dastardly mail! It has me so vexed I just can't deal with it anymore! Even my scrapbooking paraphernalia all has a place. But mail, no it's got me beat. So happy to hear you're getting things under control. :)

Maureen said...

Clean Sweep is one of the programs where a crew comes in and helps people, right?

I have watched some of those and I think if things hadn't gotten so bad, I'd find them helpful. We were at the point where it felt easier to just not look at the mess.

We had no idea where to start and how to organize it so it wasn't completely overwhelming. It was so demoralizing!

I hope by the end of summer, things will be so much better I can find my Halloween decorations and get them out for the autumn!

JM said...

Getting rid of 'stuff' can only simplify your life. You have enough going on right now without having the worry about all your junk lingering in the back of your mind.
Yay for you!
Don't worry about the signing. You'll be fine.

Maureen said...

JM, so glad we're starting with husbands room. I am not even going to think about my big mess room until I get back from RT.

I mean, I have a steampunk convention the weekend before RT.