Leesil often accuses me of "stuffing", but I prefer to think of it as "tidying". If the house is cluttered, and someone's on their way over, I have no qualms about wholesale sweeping of crap into a bag and putting it in the cupboard to deal with later. Leesil, on the other hand, is fascinated with hoarders and if the Sunday paper isn't in the recycling bin by Wednesday, starts mumbling about interventions and ladies with 27 cats.
This is the first time in my life I've ever owned a dishwasher (that works), and there were many, many times that I'd slam a sink's worth of dirty dishes in the oven while frantically straightening up before someone rings the doorbell. Incidentally, in the only other comes-with-dishwasher home I've lived in, I used it to store plastic grocery bags.
See... I like things neat, and I think that's close enough to clean.
I will admit that there is one time when I freely indulge in stuffing - when we're packing the car for a trip. Knowing that two people, one dog, assorted magazines/books, snacks, electronics, and our luggage has to fit comfortably in a Mini Cooper is enough for me to break out blueprints and consult Navy-wife moving guides.
Most of the detritus, by default, lands on the passenger side of the car, and Leesil's not dumb - she'd rather drive for hours than sit with her feet perched on a stack of reading material and discarded water bottles.
It was especially bad on our holiday drive to Florida - packed with presents, dog food, etc.
We were running late and I was throwing stuff into bags willy-nilly, knowing that halfway down 95 I'd be rummaging past work papers to reach my allergy medicine or ipod.
Sure enough, at some point, I'd started re-arranging things - dog bowls under the seat, small items in the glove box (the second largest storage area in the car).
A week later, we're home - safe and sound. The car's unpacked, but not washed or cleaned out yet. Leesil's tootling around town - saving lives and jeopardizing others by talking on her cell phone while driving.
She gets pulled over - PISSED! It's her personal belief that social workers should be exempt from parking, speeding and illegal U-turn infractions because they're busy saving lives. Not sure that I agree with her, and I'm pretty sure MPD doesn't either.
The cop asks for her driver's license and registration, so she goes into the glove box, where -- ta da! A pair of my pink panties is lying on top of stashed parking tickets.
Needless to say, she didn't get the ticket, and I've gotten a free pass on stuffing for another week or so.
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