Talk about busy these past few days. Wednesday, I got done the kitchen and made it presentable, Thursday - the living room. Tackling my daughter's room today along with some throwing out of some clothes that I intend to do this week should make things a lot more user friendly for the condition of this home. It always seems like the place needs a major overhaul in order to make this place seem the slightest bit liveable. However I intend to lay down some groundrules.
a) WE are getting a portable dishwasher; I have a photography career that I am trying to build up from the bottom up. And if I constantly have to keep cleaning up the house, there is no way that I'll have time to build up my career. The condition of the house has been pathetic and it stops right here and that starts with the place in the house that I spend the most time in trying to keep the dishes clean: the kitchen!
I used to want a lot of books, a lot of toys, a lot of junk that would make me happy. Now, I don't need that. If I have my camera, my lenses, my computer and a way of transferring my images from camera to computer and onto the web, I'm perfectly happy. That and my family. That's all I need in this world now. I don't need the constant rat race, I could be living out of a hovel and still have a perfectly good standard of living. Money isn't the objective anymore. As far as money is concerned, just enough to pay my taxes, eat, keep a roof over my head and gas in my gas tank and a little left over so that I can save up towards upgrading my camera equipment and I'd be a pig in mud - happy as hell.
b) we are getting rid of things that we no longer need in this house. That means everybody. The more things we have in this house means the less space that we have to utilize. Hoarding stops now.
c) I fully intend that there will be rules in the house: 1) wash dishes as you use them so that we don't have to do so much. The dishwasher will mainly be for pots and pans during a cooking session and for cleaning up big messes like when we clean out the fridge annually but what we will not be utilizing these for every day dishes.
d) Having time will mean being able to do more things - not necessarily stuff to do with cleaning the house, but fun family things. I won't be so harried and we will have the freedom to be able to do everything that we could possibly want to.
And that means a much more enriching life. And more enriching means "photography" to me because that's what makes me feel like I'm living. And now that my oldest son and second oldest son plan to learn what they can about photography, they have started coming out on my shooting expeditions (at least on the weekends). I will be grooming all three (my 2 sons and my daughter) to take over my photography business and chart it to where they want it to go after my death.
Hopefully tomorrow I can tackle the bedroom and I'm saving the last spot for Sunday or Monday -- the bathroom. UGH! Then once that is done - it's finished. And we will also have an idea of what other necessities for organization that we need: I've already counted in a blanket box, a few more containers and storage cabinetry for the kitchen. I'm tired of not having enough space and plan to utilize that area beside the fridge to make it more handy. We'll see how that goes.
