Seriously, What's Under My Couch?!

For the past couple of weeks, I've been keeping track of everything I find under the couch.

It all started when I skipped my weekly heavy cleaning in the living room during Thanksgiving week. My usual routine is to clean under the furniture and rugs every Tuesday. That particular Tuesday, however, I decided to skip the weekly deep cleaning since we weren't having any company for Thanksgiving. Instead, I just gave the room a quick vacuum and dusting.

The following Tuesday, I pulled out the couch for my usual cleaning and literally gasped out loud at the amount of detritus that had piled up under there in just two short weeks. There were 22 childrens' books, along with a huge assortment of random objects. There was so much stuff under there that I had to push a pile of it out just to get behind the couch to pick up the rest. I started wondering if this was a normal thing, or if my family is just extraordinarily messy.

The next week, I wrote down everything that I found and sent it in an e-mail to my mom. Here's an excerpt from my message:

1 toy tractor
1 purple bead bracelet
1 Miss Baby
1 red plastic hammer
1 toy hot pad
1 plastic spoon
1 plastic plate
1 broken pink noisemaker
1 People Magazine
1 In Touch Magazine
1 small wad of toy stuffing (I'm guessing from Lily's penguin, which has burst at the seams).
1 pink satin glove with pink feather trim
1 lion finger puppet
1 roll of black electrical tape
1 white plastic tube that may or may not belong to Jim's food processor
1 glass paperweight
1 purple scrunchy
2 children's books
1 orange pompom
3 articles from Lily's Littlest Pet Shop
1 orange spider ring
2 drawings by Lily
1 purple Barbie tiara
1 black and chrome plastic ring of unknown origin
12 beads belonging to the Mankala game that Jim foolishly thought was appropriate for a 2 and 4 year old to play with

I'm not even mentioning the numerous shredded kleenexes from Jack's self-invented kite game, and the other crumbs and normal detritus that gathers during the week.

What is wrong with my children? Why do they shove things under the sofa?

Six days later, I cleaned under the couch again. This is today's find:

1 mitten
1 Christmas pillow
3 cat toys
2 sparkle pom-poms from Lily's craft box
3 unused Kleenexes from Jack's "kite" game
1 superball
1 plastic spoon
1 princess wand from Disney Princesses on Ice
4 childrens' books
1 small funnel
1 pad of pink post-its
1 red marker missing a cap
1 half of a barrett
1 Christmas ornament
1 nickel
1 pacifier
1 sheet of computer paper
2 pieces of clothing from the wooden ballerina doll Lily received last night
2 hair elastics (1 pink, 1 brown)
1/2 of a black crayon

My mom has gotten a kick out of my lists and thought I should start a blog about it. I'd actually been thinking about canning the photo blog and starting something new during the past few weeks. The photo blog is a great idea, but I hate the grind of taking pictures, downloading them, uploading them to Flickr and then posting them. There are so many other ways I'd rather spend my time. It got so that I wouldn't bother posting anything at all because I didn't have new photos or didn't feel like taking the time to post them. The result -- a photo blog that hasn't been updated in a year.

My new blog will be a place that I can write about the day to day things going on with the kids and our family. I really enjoy writing and it's one of the things I miss now that I'm at home full time. I will definitely post pictures on occasion, but I'll probably give you a written update more often. I'll definitely be more inclined to update when I don't feel I have to post pictures to do it!