At home

I have a trash can next to my desk at work. It’s been on the right side of my desk since the day I started; or rather, it used to be on the right side of my desk. The housekeeping staff comes in after hours to empty the trash cans and replace the liners. It’s not a particularly efficient operation, really. Even if there’s one piece of trash in that trash can, they empty it and replace the liner. Or maybe they keep the same liner if it’s clean trash (yes, there is such a thing). But probably not. They probably change the liners no matter what. 

Anyway, I’m only there three days a week but I think they come in nightly and the trash can is or rather was always left exactly in the same spot next to my desk on the right side, until one day last week when the trash can was moved to the left, between my desk and the filing cabinet. 

In typical fashion, I didn’t notice this when I came in, although the space between the filing cabinet and my desk is directly in front of me when I walk into the office. Then, I needed to throw away a paper towel or something, and I was momentarily flummoxed when my trash can wasn’t where it belonged.  After a quick look around, I found it in the aforementioned spot. 

What does a normal person do in this circumstance? Well, let’s keep it real here. I have no damn idea what a normal person would do in this or any other circumstance, but I IMAGINE that a normal person would simply pick up the trash can and move it back to its customary spot. But I didn’t do that. I accepted that the trash can had a new home, much as I would have if it had been made of cast iron and cemented to the floor, and I just adjusted my trash-throwing-away toss (which is pretty accurate). 

*****

My house is in utter disarray right now and if you’ve spent more than five minutes reading this blog, then you know that this is both well out of the norm AND very troubling to me, very troubling indeed. I like order, not chaos. I like things to be neat. But we are replacing a broken-down couch and some very old carpeting in our family room, and the room has to be empty before the carpet and furniture men come tomorrow. 

Even the walls are bare because we painted the room, too, because if you’re going to go to all the trouble of emptying a room of its contents and furnishings, you might as well roll a clean coat of paint onto the walls.

*****

If you want to find out exactly how much stuff a room contains, then empty it of all its contents and place those contents in another room in your house. The family room is a fairly small room, and I didn’t realize that it contained so much stuff. But now that the living room is filled with its own normal stuff AND all of the family room stuff, it seems like quite a lot. I’m writing this in a corner of the living room, where I am hemmed in by two bookcases, a tall and narrow cabinet, two small folding tables that we keep in a corner, and two rolled-up area rugs. It’s kind of nice, actually. It feels cozy. 

The empty room, on the other hand, is rather peaceful. It seems a pity to fill it back up with stuff. Maybe this is my new interior design concept. Makeshift fort constructed of furniture, stacks of books, and rolled-up rugs in one room and sheer empty space in another. I’ll call the furniture people and cancel our order.

*****

The carpet and the furniture were installed on Wednesday, while I was at work. That was the easy part. Then I had to figure out exactly how to organize all of the other family room stuff because the room is configured differently now. The furniture has a different footprint, so all of the other stuff, the cabinet and table and bookcases, needed to be in different locations, and pictures needed to hang in different spots on the wall. I was really a little stressed out about it. But I figured it out. 

*****

It’s been a few weeks now since the unexpected move of my office trash can, and I barely remember the time when that trash can was on the right side of my desk. The right side of my desk is dead to me. There’s a new trash can world order. 

No, I’m not too lazy to move a trash can. I’m just adaptable, a quality that serves a person well when she has to rearrange a room. I figured out where to put all the furniture, new and old, and I found new places for the pictures, and I was pretty happy with the results. It’s not fancy because we ain’t fancy people, I tell you what. But it’s welcoming and nice. Last night, everyone was home for a change, and we all hung out together in the newly spruced-up family room. I watched Game 2 of the World Series, and looked around the room with the new furniture holding the lounging bodies of the three other people I love more than any others. It’s really the nicest room in the entire world.