The Never-Gets-Done List

1.   Dust – While cleaning and vacuuming do somehow get done on a somewhat regular basis, dusting always gets left for another time that never comes.  Our ceiling fans are now artfully decorated with hanging cobwebs which match the ones hanging in the corners of the ceiling, and coordinate with the dust-bunnies under the couch. 

2.   Repaint the front porch and deck – It’s not because I’m waiting for the perfect weather.  It’s a little bit of procrastination, and a lot of finding a solid chunk of uninterrupted time.  The last time I painted the front porch, big sister was about 8 months old.  It took me about 8 hours.  It’s a small porch.

3.   Fix broken jewellery, Tape together ripped books, Glue broken fairy statues, Replace batteries for annoying toys – I’ll be honest, it just never seems important enough to me at 10:30 at night which is when I would probably get around to it.  Besides, it’ll just break again anyway.

4.   Reorganise the laundry/storage room in the basement and the storage under the stairs – I have a plan for it, I really do.  OK, so every year I have a plan for it.  Once a year it gets reorganised, and falls into a state of chaos again within 3 months.  As long as there is a path just large enough for me and a laundry basket to make it to the washer and drier.

5.   Hang that shelf in the girls’ bedroom – It’s been sitting in the corner for over a year.  I thought it would be nice for their fairy statues, baby photo and footprints, and other special things to have a safe place to accumulate dust.  Now we’re on the verge of rearranging the kids’ bedrooms.  Maybe it’ll get done as part of the redesign.

6.   Ironing – Really, this will never get done.  I’ve stopped buying clothes that requiring ironing.  Most of hubby’s shirts are wrinkle-resistant, but if he needs a shirt pressed, he needs to do it himself.  Besides, the iron is hiding somewhere in the laundry/storage room.

7.   Finish the back yard with a privacy fence and patio stones – Finances are the primary reason that this one remains on the list.  Who knows when my dream garden will be achieved?  Probably in 2.5 years when the girls are all in school.

8.   Complete littlest sister's Baby Book – It took me three years for each of big sister and middle sister’s books.  I was hoping to be faster this time round.   I haven’t started yet.  I’ve got 10.5 months to go.

9.   Print off photographs and update photo albums – When I was expecting my first child, someone gave me the advice of getting all my photos organised and putting a system in place for maintaining them.  This was before digital photos really took over, but even then, she advised that this was something that could quickly get out of hand when parents start taking a gazillion photographs of their kids with no time to do anything with them.  I had a pretty good system for a while, but as predicted, it has gotten out of hand.

10.  Clean the stickers, crayon and pen marks off of the furniture - Similar to Number 3, this just never seems to make the priority list by the end of the day.  And I'm sure that it will just happen again anyway.