You Don’t Use It . . You Lose it!

Today I’ve spent almost the entire day re-arranging and organizing. Do not mention the foot! Please understand that my house will never be House Beautiful material. We both have too much stuff and it’s everywhere.

The original plan when we moved inwas that our only TV would be in the basement. I didn’t grow up with TV and have never learned to like it. I’m always knitting or stitching or sewing (that’s not all happening NOW but in the past, it’s all happened) so I don’t pay attention to what’s going on so I have to ask questions constantly, which interrupts the show for Vince. Second, Vince will put something on and fall asleep in his chair and then whatever he was watching goes off and something else comes on and it’s not always something I want to watch and because everything is streaming (no cable), it takes at least three remotes to do anything so I’ve never learned to turn the TV on or off. I just feel like if we all had something fun to do, we wouldn’t need to be entertained but that’s just my opinion.

So, the agreement was that the only TV would be in the basement so the upstairs would be TV free. Vince could watch anything he wanted in the basement. I would either be upstairs or hang out in the sewing room with Boots. Then, along came Oscar and since the downstairs family room is the only place he can stay (because he wants to chew up the carpet and there’s tile floor where we can block him in) we’re all in the room with the only TV. Upstairs, there’s no way to block Oscar from the hardwood floors and there’s no way to block him from the whole opening to the stairs.

There’s too much for Oscar to get into in the sewing room, and probably always will be. So .. it’s the downstairs family room for Oscar and I try to spend as much time with him as I can.

Next issue is now that Oscar has been sitting with me in my recliner while I’m stitching. I don’t like the bright LED magnifying light being in his eyes and it’s a tight fit in the recliner with Oscar and me. Plus there’s no way to put the dog ramp up to the recliner so he’s jumping up and jumping down and I don’t want him doing that.

This morning I decided to move my stitching setup to the sofa and, of course, that ended up leading to other things.

Don’t laugh at my sofa! I’ve loved that sofa for so many years. 30 years! It weighs a ton. It’s a well built, sleeper sofa. When I got divorced, my dad and his friends moved it to an apartment. Then I moved into a rental house and they moved it again. Then I moved into my house and they moved it again. It really takes four men to move it. My dad finally said “If you want to move again, we’re buying you a new sofa because I’m not moving that thing again!” Every time Vince and I have moved, the movers have asked something like “Is that sofa full of lead?” Vince has wanted to get rid of it but it’s so comfy and it’s another bed if we need it. He says “It only looks so good because you won’t let anyone sit on it.

I do have a slip cover for it but it’s a stretchy one and Oscar would tear it up so I need to get one that’s more durable but Oscar has already made a hole in the back of the sofa trying to get around the barricade we have set up for him so the sofa is probably on it’s last leg.

Oscar is loving having his space right next to me without every move I make waking him or causing him to have to move.

Vince is not so much loving my new set up.

We had another TV blocking these open shelves so Oscar couldn’t get behind them to the wires that are back there. I moved the TV over so Vince will have to figure out where to put it but I put bins on the shelves. These contain kits and charts and extra floss.

Vince came in and said “Holy S***”! That’s where I was going to put the stereo equipment. I said “You snooze, you lose! You’ve been here over a year and it wasn’t being used so I’m using it now.” That’s the same thing that happened with the downstairs garage. It was full of junk so we cleaned it up and now it’s a canning kitchen.

The bin under the small table against the sofa has the kits I want to do sooner rather than later.

I put all the project bags for the projects I’m currently working on in this bin that closes. Oscar is such a thief. He’ll grab my floss, he’ll grab the linen. I have to put everything out of his reach even if I’m just getting up to take Rita out or get myself a drink. This blue bin holds all the projects I’m currently working on or hoping to start real soon. I have a clear one that holds the project I’m currently working on so I can just open it, drop everything in, close it and go do what I have to do.

The other good news is that I’m sitting facing a window instead of facing the TV. You can see that I put two ottomans in front of the window and Oscar can jump up there and look out the window when he wants to see what’s going on outside.

You can also see the TV I slid over and have leaning against a cabinet. That has to go . . where? I don’t know. To Goodwill would be fine with me but I’m sure Vince has other ideas. Hopefully he’ll do something with it soon.

Finally . . I can sit and stitch now that everything is where I want it.