Is This Normal...No, Seriously...

There a six of us in about 1470 square feet. Yes, we're trying to renovate the basement and add a few hundred more but that dream seems to get farther and farther away. Mind you, I feel blessed because many don't have it as great as we do. In fact, it wasn't so long ago that we didn't have it a great as we do. Just over two two years ago five of us co-existed in 900 square feet. Even with the addition of Gama and her yelping 14-year-old Jack Russell, Molly, my mommy math says we have all experienced a 30% increase in living space. A lot to be grateful for.

None the less, there are days.... like today, yesterday, the day before that and probably tomorrow... that I just wish we could add a bathroom, close in the carport, extend the end of the house and build a 16 x 20 out building in the yard. Somehow I know even that would soon fall short and I'd be right back here blogging about a lack of physical and personal space.

So I'm going to stop complaining about that and start complaining about this...

With so many people and personalities in the house, there are varying ideas about how stuff (and I mean physical stuff, not philosophical stuff) should be managed. I tend to ignore things unless I have the time to put it where I believe it should go (the closet, the puzzle box, the proper drawer); my husband will kick, shovel and sweep everything into piles in the corner of a room; and my mother will get up in the middle of the night and organize every little object into every available container. I know that none of these approaches is ideal and that my habit of denying a problem until I'm ready to deal with it surely bothers them as much as their approaches bother me.

But now we have a new problem. A problem I like to call...receptacle disease. (See photo). All over the house there are objects that are intended to be decorative, discarded or recycled that have become the happy holders of things that are supposed to be somewhere else. This problem seems to grow exponentially. We live in a forest of containers. It makes me want to throw out every bowl, pot, pail and cup I see. Is this normal?