I dreamed a dream - so why does it feel like a nightmare!

It’s supposed to be a natural thing for female species of all kinds to create and maintain a nest. Birds are meticulous when gathering twigs and materials to make their nests; same for squirrels. As for us humans, it’s safe to say that women are the nest builders and typically end up with most of the maintenance of those nests, the men just seem to live in them. Accolades should go to the women who teach their children to maintain the whole “nest” and to instill in them the importance and value of “neat” living.

So, I have this dream, one that seems unattainable in real life. This dream of no piles of paper or piles of clothes, no stacks of dishes to be washed, clean clear kitchen counters, a table where one can actually have a real dinner and not be surrounded by stuff all the time, a basement that has no clutter and a garage that actually holds two vehicles. I know it’s possible! I’ve seen garages that have nothing in them and I can’t help salivating over the possibility.

Somewhere I lost control of stuff. I look around and say “I bought most of this” and I sigh. Some things I “inherited” from my parents and my grandparents when we had to close down their homes after they passed away. Then there were the garage sale days when I would bring home yet more stuff; thank goodness I don’t do that anymore. There are the things I always wanted, like the rattan king chair that we purchased in California, the pie safe that is too big for my kitchen but I had to rescue it from certain doom, the rocking chair that belonged to my Grandpa and another that belonged to the Grandma I never knew.

My sister has the same issues. Our brothers have been the opposite and I have found that most amazing. I guess we can blame that on our love of shopping. Buying things we like is kind of a therapy, some call it retail therapy. However, we tend to overbuy, overspend and the result is all this stuff that clutters our lives and our homes.

My dream is a clutter free space, not the nightmare I face daily. I’ll keep pursuing that dream and maybe someday……