Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Fall cleaning?

The last few weeks have been a bit difficult around our place.

First, we had to send back the crib that we had rented for Touma. This crib had a good amount of storage underneath and when it went back it left us with a storage deficit. Because of this deficit we were left with piles of things in our dining room for a few weeks.

Shimon had been hatching a plan to reorganize our living room with large shelves and some other furnishings from Ikea. So in a mad fit about two weeks ago he bought all of the essentials and brought them home for the set up.

The new set up is wonderful, but it took time to get things sorted. It also took time to get rid of some of the stuff lying around our house. In Japan, unlike the US or other countries, there is no goodwill or other second hand store that takes in donations of clothes that can still be used. Instead most things get thrown away. However, a little while back a friend told me about tokyofreecycle, which is a website where you can post and give things away. I would rather do that than let things go to waste.

One thing that has kept the house from being as organized and clean as Shimon would like would be the fact that some days are harder than others when you spend your time with a 8-9 month old. This is something that has been incredibly hard for my husband to understand. Despite being home all day, chasing after the boy is exhausting. Going out, which is a bit more fun sometimes, is also a lot of work (work that he often calls "asobi" or "play"). What my husband sometimes misses is that when Touma is awake I can't get very much done. I can get things done in very small bursts, but overall it is not that easy.

We are finally nearly done with the cleaning and organizing process. My husband, I think, got to see a glimpse of what an average day with Touma is like when we went to a friend's place for lunch. Every 5 minutes (or less) I was up readjusting where he could go (this friend doesn't have kids, so the place wasn't fully baby proof!) and trying to keep him happy.

Anyway, this is a very disjointed entry. I'm just sharing what has been going on lately around here...

2 comments:

Katharine said...

It is amazing how little you can manage to get done in a day with children...:o) And some days you get lots done, but that's definitely not the norm. With you there. And also, their idea of looking after them all day is NOT the same as yours and mine, that I am sure of - somehow they're not so engaged, and do other things too.

NW Girl said...

Cleaning is hard enough for me, and I don't even have a kid! I can't imagine trying to keep my house even remotely clean while taking care of a baby.