The Attic

When we first moved into our house I was impressed with our attic. I finally had space to store things I no longer needed and yet didn't want to get rid of. It is the first atic we ever had that I could walk around in it with out worrying about bumping my head.

We also have a room upstairs that I use for storing things like books and other items I don't want to subject to the hot and cold extremes of the attic which means I don't have a reason very often to actually wander up the creaky stairs to the attic.

If I calculated correctly it had been over a year since I last ventured up there, opting to send the children up with what ever needed to be stored there. They had also turned half of it into an area to play house. When ever I heard the sounds of laughter floating down the stairs I would smile and envision a fun place to spend rainy summer days playing.

That all changed a little over a week ago when LV asked if I saw the attic recently. "No, I haven't been up there for quite a while," I answered blissfully unaware and visions still dancing through my head of a cozy place to play. There may even have been some unrealistic visions of beautiful lace curtains and other wonderful vintagey things that should be the part of any dreamy attic.

I opened the attic door and was greeted with an assortment of empty boxes, several bags of clothes, and a few toys on the stairs. After gingerly picking my way to the top my jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Half of the attic was simply one huge heap of boxes, some empty and others filled but their flaps were open and contents spilling out. It looked as if the children had simply stood on top of the stairs and flung the boxes and where ever they landed was fine with them.

The other half looked somewhat better, but certainly not a cozy place to play. Instead of lacy curtains, cobwebs danced at the windows, remnants of several picnics stared at me. I blinked my eyes several times in hopes this whole horrible mess would simply vanish. There was no such luck and so this past week was spent cleaning and organizing.

I didn't take any before pictures. But this is how it looks now.

 

The lace curtains and vintagey things won't happen. But at least things are clean and organized once again. And this time I'm determined to keep it that way even if it means I have to wander up there more than once a year.