Variety is the spice of life

It seems to be hard-wired into my personality. Sometimes I like this. Sometimes it's my downfall.

Craving variety allows me to deal with the ever-changing landscape of my son, Christopher's behavior. Having a child on the autism spectrum automatically ensures variety in the life of the parent - who tries frantically to teach him to accept the variety in his life because and before it causes him to have a meltdown.

Love of variety allows me to accept my many and varied mom-duties, and the last minute changes to them that come from raising 3 small children.

It is not terribly helpful for my housekeeping skills.

My absolute least favorite housekeeping chore (and the one I need to do most right now) is the ever-popular sort 'n toss. Useful for ridding one's house of clutter, but in my opinion the most boring and tedious of chores - I have neither the luxury of thinking about something else nor the intellectual stimulation my brain constantly craves. I have to really think about what I'm doing, but it's not an interesting kind of thinking.

I am determined, however, to avoid the mistake many people make - that of moving to a bigger house to house your clutter, or paying for a storage unit. The chore was elevated to monumental proportions after my dad died and my mom sent a whole bunch of the stuff that was cluttering up her house to mine. Thanks, mom. Granted, some of it was my stuff to begin with. Some of it I'd like to toss sight unseen - except I don't want to toss something actually important.

Now, what would be helpful would be a place where I could move all the clutter to just temporarily in order to give myself room to sort it in. Because you know, if you have young children, everything you get out must be put away somewhere by the end of the day. If not, your efforts will be for nil.

I'm trying to simplify my life. I'm tired of moving clutter around and stuffing it in closets. But I still have to live here while I do it. I can't just take the house apart and leave it in a shambles. Making decisions as I sort is the tough part. Ever notice how some things defy categorization? I need a great big This Is Part of a Thing That I Have Seen the Other Piece But I Don't Remember Where closet/box/bin for all the bibs and bobs of toys/clothing/tools/dishes that are lying around like so much flotsam and driving me crazy.

Too bad the TARDIS isn't real. I could really use a "it's bigger on the inside than the outside" closet around here.