I am not sure that this topic could get any duller

but I am popping back in to outline my 31 days of organizing/purging.  Yup, this post will be about cleaning our little apartment.  Much, much larger than the last one, but oddly lacking in any type of closet space.  I am actually planning to try and post every day for the next 31 days on this apartment topic.  And hopefully not only will the clean apartment "clean my soul," or some such thing, but it will help me to write about the bigger, slightly more germain topics too.  Let's see, those probably should include my deep anger towards my husband for his enforced 6 month ban on visiting the IF clinic (sad but true, I am super pissed.  Also counting down the days), dropping out of grad school (or not, maybe this will even be resolved in 31 days), and having my lifelong insulin resistance develop into diabetes (whew, haven't even mentioned that one to JD.  Plus, who knows what it means.  But I am on an all-new low carb and exercise binge and a plague on big, awful insurance companies that leave automated voice messages telling you you have diabetes ;-)).  Plus, you know, the usual ongoing saga of trying to grow my pint-sized second child onto the growth charts.

In the meantime, the apartment goal: clean, sweet, looking like a cross between a grown-up mid-century modern downtown apartment and a "playful learning space" for toddlers.  Honestly, I just want evening clean up to be easy and to not have clutter on the counter/shelves/playroom/living room floor.

The challenge: practically no closets.  The master bedroom has no closet.  There is no pantry or linen closet.  One bathroom has not so much as a shelf.  All of my clothes are in the "playroom" closet which has no hanging space for dresses, and also houses most of the large toys like blocks.  The kid's closet currently houses as many of their to-be-grown-into/special occasion/choking hazard so not okay for playdates toys.  The laundryoom and bathroom shelves are taken up with art supplies. 

In short, the game plan is to severely cut down on stuff.  And try to figure out what to do about book storage since I absolutely refuse to get rid of good children's hardcover books while we have small children who like to read them.  My school books are already half in storage, and I will par them down again.

And if you are wondering why this is all so absurd?  Well, we moved less than 2 months ago and I have already down a fairly thorough purge.  But now that we are in a new place (and it has no closets!  Whee!) it's much easier to see everything that needs to be done.

A few fun highlights: must weed out the few awful kids books, stash holiday kids books away, sell some of my books, organize sewing supplies, tackle last 3 boxes from the move, sell a few random pieces of furniture or donate, label dairy and meat for pots and knives, finish hanging photos on the wall, resort children's clothes, get rid of 10-30 more articles of my clothing, organize toiletries ... thrilling eh?

And who knows?  By the time this is up hopefully I'll have a clean apartment, finished up a silly hourly job that is running late into the night, have discovered a fount of new low-carb-but-also-fatten-up-your-failure-to-thrive-child-and-feed-the-one-who-doesn't-eat-veggies recipes, and have a husband who desperately and urgently wants me pregnant.  Anyway, he promised I could purchase a porch swing if I cleaned for 31 days and that's good for sitting on and crying away the late evening hours, right?

Apologies to my few long-time readers about the dull subject.  Tonight's cleaning was brief: sort and fold the "linen closet" (top shelf in the laundry room) and sort the art supplies in the laundry room.  I got rid of one full sheet set and put 3 pairs of shoes into the goodwill pile (yes, my shoes are also in the laundry room.  We're short shelves).  Up next: the bill paying/art desk/towel and cloth napkin desk in the kitchen.