A Word from A
WAHM
"The
Boomerang Books"
- ©
1999, by Cheryl Demas
-
- If you work at home, you know that keeping
your home neat and organized can be a huge challenge. It is a
constant struggle for me, and I'm always looking for a secret
or system that will work for us.
So this past weekend, I started
reading one of my many organizing books: "Ten Simple Steps
to an Organized Life". These books, as it turns out, are
much like diet books. Just reading the book does absolutely nothing
to solve the problem. So, I sent my family out for a couple hours
and decided to tackle step #1: Clean out your bookshelves.
That didn't sound too difficult.
I grabbed a couple empty boxes and started weeding out the books
that we could donate or throw away. Two hours later, I had lots
of empty shelf space and two big boxes of old books.
But then my family came back
home. My 12 year old daughter, Nicki, went right for the boxes.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"I'm going to give these
books away. It will help clear out the clutter, and we never
read these books anymore anyway."
She picked up "Pat the Possum"
... "Mom! This was my favorite book when I was little! How
could you throw this away?" She put it back on the shelf,
and proceeded to replace all of her early readers that she claimed
she simply couldn't part with.
My four year old Dani, sensed
the urgency and joined her sister's crusade ... "What is
this book called?" She asked.
"Learn to Speak Greek"
"Mom! I've always wanted to do that!" Fine, back on
the shelf it went.
But I didn't give up, I protested,
"Please kids, we have to clear out some of the junk in this
house."
"Well how about all of these
books then?" Nicki pointed to the top shelf.
"My Oprah Book Collection?
Are you crazy? I couldn't possibly part with those."
My husband even pitched in. "Hey,
"Football through the ages" .. I've been looking for
that!" Back on the shelf.
I couldn't take it anymore. I
left the room, and returned to find the shelves once again loaded
with books, and my two boxes empty. Except for one book, there
on the bottom of the box: "10 Simple Steps to an Organized
Life".
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