Craigslist is instrumental to getting more organized. It is our constant online garage sale. This week I sold a set of glass bookshelves that I have been storing for ten years. The buyer paid $20 extra for us to deliver them to a part of town that turned out to be… a lot different than Boulder. The guy who opened the door looked at us like we were from outer space. We were obviously not from the neighborhood. It reminded me of Guess Who when the daughter sees Ashton Kutcher and asks “Are we being audited?”. The guy figured out who we were but could not help unload the shelves from the car because he was under house arrest. I wanted to ask what he did but decided against it. Despite being so totally out of our element they were very nice and I found myself wanting to join the parents who were sitting on the couch playing Ms Pacman. Games are amazing these days but sometimes I am happy just eating pellets in a 2D maze.

Death and Taxes. In general my philosophy has always been to put them both off as long as possible. But an amazing thing happened this past week. I finished my taxes and sent them off on Tuesday! That had to be some kind of miracle. I don’t think I have ever finished before April. I remember one year in college I dropped them off at a desk at the airport on April 15th on my way to a catch a flight I was probably late for. My tax accountant (also my uncle) who knows me too well had already filed an extension. That is sad. Not this year though! I tell myself every year that I am going to finish by the end of February. And what-do-ya-know? I finally did it!

The other day I was running on the treadmill in our basement thinking about what to do with the space behind the couch. We half-jokingly but half seriously talked about getting a foosball table but they can be expensive, especially a Tornado. Later that day, just for fun, I checked Craigslist to see if anyone happened to be selling one. An hour earlier someone had posted a barely used Tornado for about a third the price of a new one. We are now the proud new owners of this foosball table. Gotta love Craigslist.

A very strange thing is happening in my neighborhood. Someone is going out in the freezing cold in the middle of the night and rifling through cars parked in the driveways. But they aren’t taking anything. Who would make all that effort and not take anything? The sad part is that multiple people felt safe enough in our neighborhood to leave their cars unlocked overnight and now everyone must lock their doors and switch on their alarms. Small town to big city overnight. This added a task for the ‘Get organized’ goal. Now that the basement is usable we need to clean out the garage so we can get Todd’s Jeep back inside. Crime is a nuisance.

The basement was ready just in time for the Super Bowl, a year long goal! It is not done but at least we can finally use it. We invited our parents and a friend over to watch the game. In case it was boring I set up a pool to bet on who would score first, who would win, etc, but the game did not disappoint. An onside kick after the half? Really? What a game! For a lot of reasons I should have rooted for the Colts but I cheered for the Saints. In over 40 years they have never even BEEN to a Super Bowl. Drew Brees is a good quarterback who deserved a ring and Manning already had one. And finally, New Orleans has seen a lot of suffering and deserved a reason to celebrate. Great game to both sides and congratulations to the Saints.

When we started our basement we wanted to get far enough along to watch Super Bowl on our new projection screen. That was last year. Now more than a year later we are close to being able to watch this year’s Super Bowl down there but it is mostly riding on whether or not our projector gets here in time. In the meantime we still have a lot of work to do between now and next weekend. A lot.

Finally, we have the boxes by the front entry way. Not exactly a great first impression when you walk into someone’s house to see their stuff piled up. I am still amazed how much I have accumulated over the years. Though I got rid of a ton in the garage sale this summer there is still so much more that we do not want to put back down in our basement once it is finished. That gives me about another month to get rid of all this crap. Looking back on these posts I am realizing that at least half of the rooms in our house are in need of a makeover. Sigh.

Another room that needs serious attention is one we call “The Cat Room”.  Even though there is furniture and a very nice king sized bed (actually two stacked on top of each other) there is no way we can consider it a guest room. Who would want to stay in the same room with a bunch of cat litter boxes?
 
 

Aside from the shelf in the corner there, the closet is also full of stuff from the basement as well as every drawer in the dresser. We even have hidden boxes behind the bed. Of course we would prefer not to have an entire room dedicated to cat litter and storage. There must be a better way.

I wish I could find my real “before” picture of the basement. It was worse than my office. Every square foot had something in it, boxes, tubs, blankets, camping equipment. You could barely walk around down there. Now it looks like this:     
    
In the left corner there will be a wet bar. That side of the room will have a nice foosball table and a treadmill. On the dark wall is a projector screen for our little home theater and a couch will divide the two sides of this very long room. There will also be a small guest bedroom and bathroom.

I thought it would be really embarrassing to post my weight on the internet but this is far worse. (Sigh.) The picture below was taken about a week ago. It is supposed to be my office but it looks more like an episode of Oprah. For the past year I have worked from my couch downstairs because I have been afraid to go in there. The picture doesn’t even do justice to how bad it was. I say “was” because soon after I took this photo I at least cleared off the floor and desk so I can work in there again. Just straightening it up is not going to cut it this time. I do that every couple months and before long it becomes a dumping ground again. I need to get rid of all this junk!