Last week, we had Potty Problems.
Potty Problems that meant we had to call the plumber.
Potty Problems in the master bathroom.
In case you are new around here, just know that letting random non-immediate-family type people walk through the master bedroom and INTO the master bathroom is cause for major heart palpitations.
I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth (that’s supposed to be calming, right?) and reminded myself that at least the master bedroom was walkthroughable since I’d had to let the Bug Man in the week before for our yearly termite inspection.
Somehow, I was caught off guard when the plumbers called to say they were on their way. I knew they’d promised to work us into their schedule. I knew they are awesome about actually doing that when they say they will.
But I didn’t go look in the bathroom until after the ten-minute-warning phone call happened.
Honestly, it could have been worse.
It could definitely have been waaaayyyy better.
But it could have been worse.
After grabbing random clothes and throwing them onto the laundry pile, I looked at the toilet. The actual space where Mr. Plumber Man would spend his time.
And that was when I saw the pile o’ magazines.
The pile o’ magazines that had escaped my Slob Vision for a very long time. The pile o’ magazines that hadn’t been perused in a very long time. I knew it was a long time by the thickness of the dust.
Ugh.
But as ugly as it was, that blanketing of dust helped me. I saw no reason whatsoever to hem nor to haw.
I didn’t worry about which nugget of information I might NEVER ever learn.
They’d been there . . . a while.
Untouched.
So now they’re gone forever.
And even though I didn’t see those magazines sitting there before, I now see them NOT sitting there. It’s strange how that happens.
Oh. You’re wondering what that equally-dusty card on top of the pile is? It’s my very first slob-blogging business card. I have no idea why/how it ended up there. It’s gone now, too.
And yes, I dusted the toilet after that.
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Random but not-totally-random affiliate link of the day:
I used one of these microfiber cloths
Hey… at least you had to dust and not scrub sh….tuff off the floor etc… It could have been WAY worse…
*sigh* I use to have such a hard time with magazines. So… I’ve quit buying them. I know that seems extreme and silly, but I had to stop. I had a rack full, a table full, a tray full, and then another rack downstairs and they were piling up. It doesn’t help that friends and family would give them to me knowing that I was a voracious reader and would read books, magazines, and heck, shampoo bottles! So, I stopped buying them. When people ask if I want them, I usually say, “I don’t need any — I get tons on-line and on my Kindle.” And the problem has stopped. I eventually did what you did and just chucked a big pile. But the real trick for me is just no longer buying them. Not buying plus using my Kindle for magazines and books has made my life so much lighter. I never realized how much bulk I had in PAPER!
Yes! Good point!
I have the exact same issue as you! What a great idea! Magazines online! I like books as actual books but magazines… online is a great idea! Time to purge the paper and splurge on the online!
I used to do the same thing. Pretty much every new issue of 90% of women’s magazines – yeah, I bought them … every month. And I saved them, too, on a big shelving unit in my laundry room. For about five years. It was a stupid place to save paper items, but I “needed” every one of them because of a recipe, craft project, stain removal method … you name it, there was a reason.
Until the day I started packing for the move to the new house. I was using the Flylady list for getting ready for a move and realized if I hadn’t looked at most of them for four of the five years, I probably would never look at them … and I threw them all away.
Now I just buy the Woman’s World magazine, and not every week. I’ll have to check out the online magazines. 🙂
Well with our wedding coming this Saturday (OMG) I have a lot of extra guests coming this week. Like at least three sleeping over and a dozen in and out of our one bedroom one bathroom apartment. There’s no hiding my clutter and dirt this week! So the next two days are furious cleaning along with organizing all the gear we have to take to the wedding site (did I mention I have a dozen boxes of wedding related items on top of the clutter? And also an assortment of camping gear on top of that from fiance’s bachelor party last weekend?) Soooooo my sister-in-slob-brain, don’t feel overwhelmed. There’s always one of us with even crazier clutter related issues going on at one time. (And yes I may have used this opportunity to vent a bit LOL)
Vent away!! And enjoy your wedding!!
Our library has magazines online. No need to purchase any. Keeps a lot of clutter from happening!
When my magazine pile overwhelms, because who can resist those cheap subscriptions they hook you with, I cut off my address labels and take them to the local hospital for them to distribute in waiting or patient rooms. I feel very good about myself doing that and rid myself of a pile of clutter. I’m trying to let the subscriptions run out and not renew them since I rarely read them anyway!
A few years ago, I was in a hospital waiting room and picked up a magazine that looked a little funny. It was from 1984!!!!! So yes, I’m pretty sure those hospital visitors appreciate your donation!!!
Oh dear! Did you have to mention magazines right now? I’m pretty good at keeping miscellaneous magazines in one place and periodically going through them before the pile gets more than six or seven deep. I remove anything of interest ans then put them out for recycling.
But……
I am a family historian and I have monthly subscription to one magazine and buy other ones if they have something of interest. And I have…….at least 180. (I just did a quick count.) The problem is, they are really reference works but not in a format that I can easily access.
So I started going through the magazines and removing useful articles, planning to scan them to the computer and build a database. I’ve culled the articles of 45 so far and that took ages. I still have the 180 left to do. And I now have a large pile of articles to scan and no time to do so.
Yesterday I found myself considering whether I should just put them out for recycling but…. Help!
Before you cut articles out – and scan them – and build a database, ask yourself if you could just Google for that information. Or updated information. Or different but equally interesting/informative information. Then take all the magazines to the nearest doctor’s office or hospital waiting room…and drop them off. It’s a LOT less work.
That’s what I do, Christina … Google what I need to know. Because no matter how important I think that information might be (in those saved magazines or files), I’ll save it/scan it/file it away – and rarely open that file again. It’s taken a long time for me to realize that if a problem crops up once, it probably will again. 😀
Oops. I meant to add … so I never have to worry that I’ll forget that I can Google it again. The information will always be there – without cluttering up my computer.
Yep, if anything has a layer of dust on it…it is likely not used at all and is not needed. Great job knowing what to do when it became visible for you!!
This where my I’m okay to get rid of it, but try to optimize where it goes problem kicks in. I would be ready to get rid of the pile, but then be debating- “should it go to my kids school”, the donate bin at the library or can I just recycle it. Oh wait there’s that place down the street that takes them sometime and sometimes not. In this way they would stop being clutter in a room, and become clutter in my trunk or on my porch.
It’s that point that you have to decide what works better for YOU. Sometimes doing the right thing is just making it GO! All of those options are good. Like, if you know that place is taking them, and it’s on your way, do it. If you have a doc appt., take them. But if you are just in need of getting them out of the way, throw them in the recycling bin and walk away! They are all good solutions — the only bad one is the one where they don’t leave! 😉
You mean I don’t need to let them “season” for 6-8 weeks before I pass them on?
I’ll have to try that. 🙂
BWAHAHA! I’m stealing that for when I go out to the garage and the husband asks me, “What is all of this stuff?” My response, “I had to let it sit and season before I could take it off.” LOL
I think what makes you notice it so much now is because the top of your toilet is brighter without the magazines, business card, and dust. When I declutter something, I always stop to admire the space for a few days because it just looks so much brighter.
My hubs had a collection problem. He wanted to keep old car magazines even if they were ripped, read and reread a thousand times, and some had definitely seen better days. Now he sees the light. When it gets ripped, toss it! He was hanging on to a 10 year old catalog and I said I’ll order you a new one or you can look online (since he’s reading his phone in there more and more these days) and see all the NEW stuff and the look on his face was like I said it’s Christmas day. He had never thought of getting a new one. Simple things make us feel better. I’m not saying cancel all magazines but at least toss the old one when the new one arrives.
Dust the toilet.
Say that anywhere else and people would look at you sideways and wonder about you.
Not here! I just dusted mine the other day!
Hahaha!!!
I really did wonder about that. I even giggled a little. Because I’m sure that your toilet hasn’t been sitting there for months, unused. Then I realized that you meant that back part of the tank where you probably don’t sit. LOL
Thank goodness we live in the age of Google and Pinterest and no longer have to hold on to physical objects to file away good ideas!