When I was a kid (a younger kid than I am now), I had a really really messy room. Really messy. And like most parents, mine would request that I clean mine before we had guests over, or whenever they weren't able to manuever through the piles to say goodnight to me.

One of these parents was my dad, organizing super-hero. In the messy closet of my epically messy room were carefully labeled plastic containers for barbies, doll clothes, art supplies, etc.

But there was never a "miscellaneous" box. I had a nightstand drawer that served as an area for loose things, but it was never big enough to store all of the random little crap that I really should have just thrown away but didn't because I felt like I'd really want that rock from the parking lot in orlando as part of a future "parking lot rocks" collection.

Enter Fred. A giant purple Fred Flintstone head that once contained Flintstones animal crackers. Seriously, it was really weird. But it was big, and was a great way to store (read: conceal) all of the stuff that I didn't want to put away into the appropriate bins, or in the case of the parking lot rock, didn't have an appropriate bin. And obviously, after stuffing Fred, I would hide him somewhere.

Unsurprisingly, dad and sue always found Fred and the bounty within. (I knew this because they'd dump his head out on the floor and I'd have to find another place to stash... er... carefully put away, all of that stuff. Eventually, after many threats of dad and sue taking whatever wasn't put away, Fred was taken hostage to the bowels of their closet. Although I undoubtedly threw the world's hugest tantrum, I remember feeling a bit relieved that Fred + crap was their problem now. P.S. If you see a really great "parking lot rocks" collection on ebay, you'll know where it came from.

Enter 2010. I am now a much more organized individual. But I'm still wickedly lazy. Last night, when I got off the couch to go to bed, I took my empty cup and I put it in the bookshelf, and went upstairs. Why did I not bring it up with me and put it in the dishwasher, or at least just in the kitchen? No idea. Probably 50% lazy and 50% knew that Luke would grab it.

When I wrote these resolutions, this one was originally called "no catch-alls." I wasn't allowed to have any spots where I could stash stuff temporarily until I had a chance to put them away, because I felt like I knew myself well enough to know that I would NEVER put that stuff away.

But the highly-interrupted life that I live, filled with getting to a room to find a new mess or a new leah issue to solve, I end up leaving a lot of things around. I'll bring a pile of papers to the kitchen to put away, but then I notice Leah doing stage dives off the stairs and the papers get forgotten. I'll start on a project, but then be handed a book by my cutest daughter, and obviously, the project gets forgotten. Once it gets time for one of my "resets," I try to put things away as best as I can, but some stuff ends up in the catch-alls. And that's fine.

Thus, a more relaxed resolution #13. Mind the catch-alls. I think everybody needs a quick stash spot. I have a few - a desk drawer in the living room, a basket in the laundry room, and a box in the kitchen. But every Friday, my remember the milk to-do list reminds me to give them a once over - throw away the trash and put away what needs to be put away.