Clutter, Clutter Everywhere ...

Note the time - 3.15 am! I have just finished a marathon session of mounting, packaging and addressing/stamping a huge load of Colin's stamp orders. This is actually Sean's job, and he gets paid very well to do it; but being a typical teenager he wants money for nothing. I am sick of hearing excuses about why stuff didn't get done. Basically he just isn't interested. And therefore he is fired. Yep, I can fire him, seeing as I've taken over all the admin. He just isn't responsible enough to be trusted to do it without having one of us watch over his shoulder constantly to make sure he does it right. I've even started compiling a sheet as I'm making the artwork for the stamps, with a list of the order number (or Ebay username/real name), what size stamp mount and what colour inkpad is needed, with the idea that he stamps the completed stamp next to it to show that it's been sent. But no, even that would be too easy. So there we go, he was on to a nice little earner there - he had the potential to earn huge amounts of money (he was being paid per stamp to mount, pack and take to the Post Office - so if for example we did a run of 10 stamps he would get paid x 10, even if they were all for the same customer). Oh well, his loss, my gain. That money will be coming my way from now on.

Poor Sean, he's going to have really big shock out in the big wide world when he finds himself a Saturday job. Bless him, I love him dearly, but he really doesn't have a clue. He's going to find that his little excuses will get him nowhere except out of a job. He doesn't understand that he has to be responsible and do what is expected of him to keep his job and to succeed at it. Maybe I should give him another chance. Maybe I should write him a job description so that he is sure of exactly what I want him to do and how I want him to do it. Hhhmmm, time for another discussion I think.

I had a huge hissy fit meltdown this afternoon, after waiting for Colin to get his act together and get out of bed so that we could start on the planned clearing out. He said he just wanted '10' minutes to read some stuff on the net, and it was an hour and a half later when he woke up again when he heard me shouting at Sean (who I had asked to take all the dirty dishes to the kitchen, but had just wandered off upstairs to play his X-Box). And then when he did come down, instead of starting on what I'd told him needed to be done, he faffed around elsewhere, and made me lose my rag.

I cannot stand to live in this clutter any more. It is seriously threatening my sanity. So why don't I get off my arse and do something about it? Because I just don't know where to start, and I just can't seem to tackle something so enormous. There isn't a room in the house that couldn't do with a major clearout. This pic is one that Colin took yesterday (complete with the dirty jeans on his leg in the corner of the photo). See the pile of boxes in the top right? I have no idea what's in them, but it's probably something business related. Or just another load of crap. Then that box in the bottom left, propped up against the monitor? That box came a fortnight ago with stationery in it. I asked Sean to put it out with the rubbish, but it's still sitting there. Gggrrrr. And the monitor? Belongs to the server that Colin put in after my big laptop hard drive crash. That is, the server that he promised me at least two months ago that he would be moving down into the cellar. Double gggrrr. This is just the tip of the ocean. There is stuff everywhere.

At least I got loads of washing done and dried out on the washing line today, and three full loads through the dishwasher. And Sean did a sterling job of tidying the kitchen (he's not all bad, he is really good at houseworky things when he puts his mind to it). So at least something has been achieved today. I would, however, like to know who it was who finished the toilet roll in the bathroom and got out a new one. Cos whoever it was left the inner cardboard tube from the finished roll, plus the plastic wrapper the new one was in, lying on the bathroom floor, about three inches away from the bin I bought last week.

Am I fighting a losing battle? I think so. Do I have the motivation to get it sorted myself? Not really, though I am trying desperately to.

Allegedly, Colin was going to run the hot water pipe down from the boiler upstairs to the kitchen, but somehow I really don't think that's going to happen tomorrow either. What a surprise - NOT!

If I don't update my blog for a few days, you can bet I've probably gone into major meltdown about the state of the house. Actually, I'm not joking. It's really getting me down, but I can't do it all on my own. I think it's time I took matters into my own hands instead of waiting for Colin to do it. Girl power! Yeah, right!

It's time I went to bed.