Cleaning House – Purging
Dec 30 2010

Today I spent most of the day just getting rid of stuff.  Shipping clothes to relatives with younger kids, giving toys and other sundries to Goodwill, and moving things around.  I took bags of stuff to Goodwill.  I have boxes of stuff to take to the kids’ school.  I threw bags of (ugh) plastic little useless toys away that can’t be recycled, and I dread the thought of them being in a landfill like in Toy Story 3, but it had to be done.  The house feels lighter.  I feel lighter.  The kids were about 25% helpful but mostly got caught up playing with toys they didn’t want to get rid of.  They were good helpers when I gave them instructions and didn’t argue too much when I told them to throw certain things away or put something in a certain pile, but they would find excuses to play hide and seek, scream and laugh up a storm, work on puzzles, try to play the iPhone, etc. which made me frustrated but smile at the same time.  I’m so glad they get along so well.  I know the day is coming when they won’t get along so I’m savoring it now.  I was too exhausted to cook anything for dinner after a busy day of cleaning so we went to Kerbey Lane Cafe for dinner and the waitress even commented on how well they got along.  [I’m knocking on wood right now!]  My son even encouraged my daughter to play Mario Kart (that he got for Christmas from Grandma) on the Wii with him and made sure she was making enough progress to keep her interested in continuing to play with him.  He’s smart like that…anything to play the Wii!  She’s not much into playing video games but there are a few sports games and things like Mario Kart she likes.

I like an organized house and my house hasn’t been as organized as I’d like in the past couple of years, but I just decided I had to give in to the “lived in” look and the chaos of two kids for my sanity.  Some things are just not worth getting that upset about (i.e., clothes/jackets hanging on chairs/sofas, toys in various places in the house, etc.).  As long as I’m not tripping on something, it’s all good and the kids are pretty good about keeping things out of the way.  My daughter seems to enjoy helping me or being next to me most of the time, but my son would rather play the Wii or the iPhone and it’s hit or miss on his attitude about taking his socks he left on the floor to his dirty clothes bin.  But if it’s night time, then mom has to be close by so he can go to sleep!

I still have the garage, my office, my bathroom, and the kitchen drawers to get through.  Sigh! 

It’s good to get rid of stuff, baggage, old ways of doing things even in an entrepreneurial endeavor.  If you don’t get rid of the old ways of thinking and doing things, you can’t make room for the new and I’ve seen many a start-up fail because they get stuck in the ‘well, it’s always been like this‘ attitude and they don’t take time to make room for some fresh thinking and of course new gadgets.  Who couldn’t use a room full of new Zhu Zhu or Kung Zhu pets and their paraphernalia to get the entrepreneurial juices flowing! 😀

Author: Aruni | Filed under: entrepreneurship, parenting | Tags: cleaning house, Goodwill, kung zhu pets, Mario Kart, toy story 3, Wii, zhu zhu pets | 4 Comments »

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