By Kathy Miele
“Remind me again why we’re up here,” my son Alex said while he was standing in our attic, shivering under a bare light bulb.
“Because this is the perfect time to organize this mess,” I said as I pushed some more boxes out of the way to make room for all of us to stand. “I’ve just packed up the holiday decorations and before we bring them up and drop them in the middle of the floor like w usually do, it’s time to make this place into the attic of my dreams.”
“Great.” Alex sighed as he looked at his brother. “This is going to take forever.”
“It won’t take that much time if we all work together,” I reasoned. “I’ve planned it all out.” I stood in the center of the space and picked up the first box I came to. “This one has your old trophies in them.” I handed the box to Alex. “Childhood memories are going to be in the far right corner.”
I picked up the next box. “This one has fly fishing gear in it.” I handed that box to Stephen, my husband. “We’ll put all the sports things over in the left corner next to the snowboards.”
I began moving all the different holiday containers out of the way. “Max, you and Alex can go downstairs and start bringing up the Christmas things. I want to put them against the wall and then put the Thanksgiving things in front of that, then Halloween and the spring decorations can go in front.”
I began handing out boxes, directing their placement in the attic like I was conducting an orchestra.
Max picked up a bag of summer clothes. “What about these,” he asked.
“You can hang them on the rolling clothes rack over there,” I said. “Instead of stuffing our out-of-season clothes into garbage bags I’m going to start hanging them up so I don’t have to spend hours ironing when the new season comes around!” I announced proudly.
“Sounds great to me,” Steven said as he picked up a few rolls of wrapping paper. “What do you want me to do with these?”
I took them from him and placed them on one of the antique chairs we were never going to use, but had to keep. “Any rolls of wrapping paper, ribbon, gift bags or boxes that you see can be put in one place. I’m going to get a special container that the can all go in.” I had to smile at the thought. “Imagine how great it will be when something needs to be gift wrapped and instead of rummaging all over the house I can come up here, go right over to my new gift wrapping box and get exactly what I need.”
As the last box was put in its proper place, all three of my guys quickly headed down the stairs. “Thanks for all your help,” I called after them.
Steven stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “Are you coming down?”
I stood in the middle of the attic admiring its order and beauty. “In a minute,” I said. “I’m not done taking it all in.”
