junk

I love Craigslist. I know that this certain site has some of my friends rather addicted, but I don't mean that I'm addicted myself. I just really like perusing a few of the categories. One that I find rather amusing lately, is "Free Stuff".

There's all sorts of stuff that people want to just give away! From old tacky furniture (usually looking like it has been peed on), to used moving boxes, to old junky art, to more random items like one I found today - haircuts. Yes, there's apparently a new salon opening somewhere in Vancouver that is looking for models. Free haircuts people!!!

I'm a fairly tidy person. I have become one because my husband is a VERY tidy person. In fact, he really feels that "tidy" is not a good enough state for the house to be in. It has to be "clean". Not just "fixed up", but "washed down" - often with some kind of chemical cleaner.

Hah. Do I sound bitter? I'm actually not. It's more funny than anything now - now that we've worked through the tense part of the battle. (It took a good few years.)

I grew up in a rather messy house. Four girls leaving their bits and bites all over the place, a mom who was pretty darn laid back about keeping it clean (and can you blame her? She had four girls to run after!), and a dad who worked full time! It was up to us girls to take on the cleaning, if ever we wanted a clean house. And we did. Actually, it would usually happen in waves. One of us would get SO fed up with the messiness that we'd go into an angry cleaning rage and spend hours - HOURS - cleaning everything right down to the polishing of the teapot. Then, two days later, it would be messy again and that one girl would throw up her hands in exasperation. It would then be another one of us, or maybe dad, who would tear through the house in a cleaning rage, tidying up, dusting, vacuuming, doing anything to clean the place up. It went on and on.

But I married a very neat and tidy (er...clean) man. Yes, it was very important for him that we keep our home clean. It was a battle - day in and day out we'd argue about the importance of cleanliness. "Is it really worth all the hassle and anxious behaviour?" I'd demand. "Is it really that hard for us to keep it clean?" He'd argue back.

I'm happy that we've reached a nice place. And before you jump to the conclusion that I've come and given in and become a CLEAN person, stop. We've met partway. I've managed to convince him that we are not ever going to live in a show home, spick and span all the time, and he's managed to convince me that it's not that hard to put in a little extra effort on a regular basis to keep things looking nice. So there we have it. We are at a nice place now. Well, pretty much.

But this "free stuff" category has me longing for my roots. I look at the old ratty furniture (but not the peed on ones) and think, "That would be so nice to just clean up and put in our living room!" Or the old broken record player, "Someone we know could fix it!!" It's appealing to my junk-collecting brain and I'm finding it rather amusing.

But I'll hold back. In fact, I MUST hold back. Our townhouse is totally full at the moment, what with the anticipation of Pito and our having recently created a home office for me to work in (in the storage room downstairs!!). So there is no room, not even in our crammed garage, for junk.

I'll have to be good then. But I do insist that you readers check it out! It's hilarious to just peruse through. I've caught myself laughing out loud at some of the items that people think someone will want.

And who could pass up a free haircut, anyway???