When it comes to domestic science–or arts, depending on how you like to regard these matters of home–my greatest achievement might be the reasonable management of expectations.\u00a0 If you work a challenging career while managing your home on your own, hang out with your family and friends, and stop even occasionally to breathe and enjoy life, well, let\u2019s face it.\u00a0 If you want to sleep at all, something has to give.<\/p>\n
Too tired for the dinner dishes?\u00a0 Leave them until morning, perched in the sink, and no one\u2019s life will be diminished therein.\u00a0 Dust on the dining table?\u00a0 Cover it with a placemat, top off the red wine and cheese board, and carry on.\u00a0 Unidentifiable grunge in the back corners of the fridge vegetable drawer?\u00a0 If it\u2019s not sprouting anything yet, it\u2019s no sweat. It Can Wait.<\/p>\n
The It Can Wait philosophy for home management may be tested, however, when functionality begins to diminish, or comes to a full stop.\u00a0 Consider for a moment my cherished walk-in closet.\u00a0 It remains one of the most life-changing upgrades I experienced when choosing a new home three years ago after a decade in an 80s-vintage condo.\u00a0 The condo storage space was clearly intended for minimalists with one pair of jeans and two towels to their names.\u00a0 My new walk-in, measured out for two in a home presently occupied by one, is large enough to double as a sleeping nook for a visiting grandchild.\u00a0 And when it comes to maintaining organization in this spacious temple to clothes, shoes, purses, jewelry, hats, and\u2026 other stuff, my standards are, as always, reasonable to low-end.<\/p>\n
I just want to be able to, you know, walk in.<\/p>\n
Sadly, It Can Wait collided head-on into Safety First earlier this week. Reaching for a dress for a work meeting while snaking around the various obstacles long ignored on the closet floor, I skidded on something and fell forward, catching myself on a hanger rack just in time to avoid a nose-dive into the depths of a peachy slip and fall case, featuring me as both plaintiff and defendant.<\/p>\n
The Queen of It Can Wait values domestic flexibility but places a higher premium on life and limb. So, first thing Saturday morning I set aside plans for a couple of errands.\u00a0 It was (long past) time to bravely face the inner sanctum and, in the name of all that\u2019s holy, clear out enough floor space to re-establish safe entry and exit.<\/p>\n
How did it get so far gone?\u00a0 Evidence abounds while excuses are absent.\u00a0 Here blocking the dress rack is my new suitcase, unpacked but never stowed away after a fabulous trip two full months ago that was immediately followed by a blitzkrieg work schedule.\u00a0 The suitcase totters, unbalanced by a pair of shoes stuck beneath it that were set out for donation but never got there.\u00a0 The cause of my slip?\u00a0 A slick, plastic, folding suitbag, fallen from a shelf above who knows when. In my (wobbly) defense, the bag is the same color as the carpet.<\/p>\n
The upside, of course, is the litany of discoveries emerging from the excavation of the floor.\u00a0 Look!\u00a0 There are my favorite amber beads, presumed lost forever.\u00a0 In reality, they apparently fell from the necklace rack into an overturned shoe.\u00a0 Even better, the floor was festooned with a wealth of fallen hangers, just when I had cited the absence of available hangers as motivation to postpone doing the laundry.\u00a0 \u00a0And there, thank the LORD, FINALLY, is the box to store the hat I wore at my little, impromptu Derby party.\u00a0 In 2023.<\/p>\n
Even when It Can Wait rules the day, I still keep an eye open for any chance to funnel excess down to the next generations.\u00a0 A few days before the Slipped But Got Lucky drama, I invited my daughter back into the depths of the walk-in to help me select a necklace for an upcoming important event.\u00a0 Sorry about the mess, I babbled, suddenly embarrassed for the clutter to be seen by anyone else, though she is never judgmental about such things. Do you see anything in here that you want?\u00a0 I added hopefully, trying to distract.\u00a0 No dice that time, but occasionally that tactic is fruitful.<\/p>\n
If I actually noted the minimal time it finally took to restore the closet floor for unfettered passage, the self-flagellation might endure forever.\u00a0 Instead, when I finished it felt great to pace the floor briskly, one end of the walk-in to the other, three times in succession, like a deep thinker sorting through a great idea.\u00a0 Say, for example, an idea like progressing from clearing the floor to sorting through the shelves and hanging racks for more stuff to clear out.\u00a0 At some future time, another day.\u00a0 After all, It Can Wait has a habit of restoring control pretty promptly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When it comes to domestic science–or arts, depending on how you like to regard these matters of home–my greatest achievement might be the reasonable management of expectations.\u00a0 If you work a challenging career while managing your home on your own, hang out with your family and friends, and stop even occasionally to breathe and enjoy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humor","category-mid-life-adventures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}