I'm a Scouter - will my house every been clean?

[gwd-scouter]

Hello folks. You can tell I'm a scouter by just stepping into my house. Well, actually, you need only drive by my house for now.

 

You see, our chartered organization is undergoing some major construction and asked us to temporarily move our troop trailer. Being the SM and my husband is an ASM and oversees equipment, naturally we moved it to our house. Great big ol' trailer sitting in our driveway for almost a year now. Sure, the neighbors understand, but I imagine they'd like to see it gone (as we would).

 

Walk up the sidewalk, step onto the porch, and past the open side door to the garage. What will you see? Tents piled up that weren't put back in the trailer yet. Charcoal grill from campout a couple of weeks ago - still hasn't made it to the back deck. Couple of dutch ovens, a patrol box, cedar poles and a box of rope for lashings. All of which must be put back in the trailer for storage - some time!

 

Now enter the house. Just past the entry hall is the dining room. What's that piled up on a side chair? Scout books, leader books, a couple of hats left in the car after returning from a trip, paperwork the SM should get to some time or turn over to someone else to get to. Dining room table? More stuff (smaller items) to be put away in the boxes to go back in the trailer. Son's merit badges sash and months ago acquired merit badges not yet sewn on.

 

Travel into the kitchen and a pile of left over and/or unopened food items from last month's campout are waiting to be put away: an unopened jar of mayonnaise, bottles of ketchup, syrup, mustard, crackers, chips, coffee, sugar, seasonings, drink mixes, etc. etc. etc.

 

The coolers and large water jugs are still drying out on my back porch (it's been two weeks, they're probably dry by now).

 

A pile of boy scout socks and scout-related Tshirts waits on the back of the couch in the den to be put away in our scout dresser. Yep, we do have a dresser in the den dedicated only to scout clothing. With all four of us involved, we needed it.

 

My duffel bag from the white water trip a couple of weekends ago still sits half-packed on the floor in the bedroom, as does my husbands. Why unpack when we'll just be leaving again in a couple of weeks?

 

And so it goes and has been like this to varying degrees of mess for the past 14 years.

 

Hello everyone. I'm a Scouter.

So, what does your house look like?

 

(sorry about the typo in the title. I always seem to type every when I mean to type ever)

(This message has been edited by gwd-scouter)

[oldsm]

Gwd_socuter, you made me smile! I think you're normal.

 

Good luck getting rid of the trailer. On the other hand, it's good advertising...

[Venividi]

gwd-scouter,

 

I see opportunity! I see a call to your SPL in your immediate future, to ask him to set the wheels in motion for the ASPL to call the quartermaster to set a time when he and a couple of his buddies will be over to put away equipment from the last campout! It's nice to have such young visitors. Be sure to just happen to have some cookies and iced tea to share when they are done.

[OneHour]

gwd-scouter ... your house will be clean ... when you are about to move out of it! We are in the process of moving to a slightly bigger house (to store more of my scouting stuffs ... and sons' of course). The boss made me clean house! I had to get rid several tons of stuffs! Right now, the house looks great uncluttered! My boss made a comment. She said, "I have never realized how beautiful your den looks until now!" There is a compliment in there somewhere!

 

 

(This message has been edited by OneHour)

[FScouter]

Venividi is on the right track. Take the time you would use cleaning your house and spend it on selecting a committee equipment coordinator. The Scoutmaster has other duties that don't include managing troop equipment! Simplify your life and build the troop at the same time.

 

[orennoah]

No.

[SueM]

Hee hee..orennoah beat me to it! No! First, there is my "traveling library" that basically stays in the back of my van with all my current manuals, some personal MB books and other necessary item. Then I have my carry bag, which has all the paper work..tour permits, advancement forms, totin' chips, etc. The only time I take it out now is if I know that I need to use the cargo space in the van!

 

Then..let's hit the dining room..that's my "bad" area! Over in one corner, there's my Beaver Collection..ever growing (I think there may be some hanky-panky going on there..they keep increasing in numbers!) my carry bag with all the manuals for teaching NLE/BST/IOLS and TCC. There are also other odds and ends too. Next to that is my grandmothers' antique sideboard...just enough room under that for the big First Aid kit that we put together for the Emergency Preparedness MB..but I've included lots of things in it that I like to have available at campouts that normal First aid kits don't have..like benedryl for insect bites, mosquito coils for evenings..etc. On top of that..more Beavers..pictures, etc. Then, on my dining room table, I keep my laptop and work from it mainly..I also currently have my Wood Badge staff syllubus and at least one flip chart that I'm working on. There's a stack of CD's that one of my ASM's just dropped off with pictures from Summer camp. I'm also managing a horse show next weekend, so all my stuff for that is also on the table, including 3 boxes of individually packaged chips!! (luckily..it's a BIG table!) I've also got my USB hub, my handheld GPS unit, the camera card reader and lots of other papers. Behind me then on the one side is my laptop case, my carry case with all my other flip charts in it for WB and in the other corner behind me there is a stack of old paperwork, various programs that I've used recently and one wrought iron decorative shelf that I bought at a Longaberger party several years ago and have never put up!!

 

Now..one of the other options that HAS recently helped out here was that my son is working on Family Life..so for his family project he decided to clean the garage! The 7 of us worked all day several weeks ago but we can now get IN the garage!!

 

Sue m.

 

 

[Eamonn]

Her Who Must Be Obeyed runs a very tight Ship.

I'm given areas for my stuff. But every now and then she insists on tidying them up.

After which I can't find anything.

The dining room is used more as a conference room than anything else. But it is very much her room. She furnished it with antique furniture and decorated it.

None of us (not even the dogs!!) are supposed to enter it. She notices the footprints on the carpet if we dare to go in.

Since she has been unwell I do go in to water the plants.

OJ's room is very much off limits, unless you know the cure for what you might catch.

If I were to add a bath and a microwave, I'm sure he would never leave.

Over the years I've enjoyed watching the posters on the wall change from Disney characters to sportsmen to females who while dressed are not in any way over dressed.

We have fitted cupboards in the bedrooms, but I'm not allowed to keep any Scout uniforms in the bedroom. I think because there is just too many. All Scout type clothing is kept in my dressing room.

The house has a 3 car garage. I have one stall for my Scout stuff. There is a work bench that is piled high with my tents and camping equipment five -three drawer filing cabinets full of Scout papers, 3 big gray metal cabinets full of books and video tapes. Along the back wall I have my training stuff: TV/VCR, LCD Projector, overhead projector.

We have a two car garage which used to store just about everything you might ever need to run a Day Camp. But I cleared that out to get the tractors in.

The tractors had to move to make room for the Sea Scouting equipment.

At present there are a couple of boats in the yard. I'm planning to build a boat shed. So far I have dug the holes for the posts, but work came to a halt. (The holes have 55 gal drum in but I need to set the posts and get a roof on.)

The only real disaster area is my desk. For some reason I don't do well with disks.

I used to keep a lot of stuff, but I found that I was never ever able to find it when I needed it. So now I just don't bother.

We have a couple of other buildings that have been used to dry tents and store equipment. But after a while it just seems silly. If something hasn't been used for a few years it really isn't that important and in most cases isn't in very good shape.

I'm not much of a collector. When the Scout mugs out grew the cupboard I donated the ones that didn't fit to the camp. Patches and stuff end up in Tupperware boxes stored in an antique box. Her Who Must Be Obeyed bought it at an auction, she tells me it's a hope chest -I think it looks like a coffin.

I'm not very organized but I found doing things Her way made life easier.

Eamonn.

[Cheerful Eagle]

Oh boy, what I have to look forward to!

 

This spring, while my front porch was decorated with drying tents from snow camping trips, and my living room festooned with sleeping bags airing out, and storage boxes for technicle clothing strewn about, I nearly made good on my threat to redecorate the house a la REI.

 

Hey, I'm as bad as my dh and son. Between staffing for woodbadge, camping with cubscouts and girlscouts, it didn't make much sence to totally stow my camping gear either.

 

Then there's my stash of props for teaching CS Pos Specific, my Den "box", and my growing library of BSA books, related books and field guides. Usually hanging out in my bedroom or the livingroom.

 

Of course, there's stuff randomly placed in the garage(the image of a squirrel burying acorns comes to mind): the beadie baby kits JoAnne's had on 50% off, remnents of nyoln ripstop or thick plastic sheeting, a collection of empty oatmeal canisters and empty 2 liter soda bottles, hulahoops, jumpropes, and model rocket equipment(donated by neighbor). *In the fall* major quantities of popcorn. Scrap wood and 9-year-old sized hammers and screwdrivers. coping saws.

 

My sewing days are over, but I keep my machine around for patches.

 

My cookbook collection has almost as many titles relating to outdoor/backpacking/dutch oven cooking as anything else.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Warning, do not let this happen to you!

I have areas, closets, boxes both cardboard and plastic, four-drawer file cabinets, bookshelves, and trunks full of Scout stuff. It is in the living room, guest room, garage, shop and in the basement. I used to purchase things from Scout Collectors and Memorabilia people and then I went over to Ebay and then garage sales and wound up at auctions. We have moved 6 times in the last 10 years. This last move, I brought along my collection of large rocks that I dug up out of our back yard to make a rock path at our new house. I also threw away 6 large garbage bags of Scout papers during that move. My wife has reached a type of an epiphany with me and my stuff. This year is the year for getting rid of the duplicates and excess. I hope I can find the time. Scouting tends to draw me away. FB

 

[Lynda J]

Think you are about normal. My "sewing room" has camp gear in it. Book shelves are full of Scout books. My mother spent most of her life working with Girl Scouts. One entire room in the upstairs was called the "Scout Room"/

 

Welcome to our world.

[SWScouter]

My den is a disaster. There are a couple of bookshelves that are packed with books, journals, and stuff in front of the books. There are books and such stacked all over the floor. There are reciepts piled up and falling of the desk. Stuff gets knocked off so there is room to move the computer mouse. I still have to pick up all the stuff on the floor for last years taxes and flex reimbursement account. There is stuff from being den leader (that ended last Feb.) My son's shadow box is on the floor and all the patches and stuff for it are strewn about. There's some camping gear and Camelbacks and such strewn about. There is a path for my wife to push the vacuum to the closet.

 

My wife's like Eamonn's. She keeps a tight ship. Somehow I was able to let the den become unmanageable. I really can't figure out how she let me. Perhaps she was experimenting to see how far it would go.

 

My dear wife gave me an ultimatem last week. The room must be fixed by the end of September or she will take care of it. That could cost me thousands in redecorating fees. I'm trying to decide what would be the least painful route to take: fix it myself or let her.

 

SWScouter

[Eagle309]

I remember my old Scoutmasters house. It was not dirty but was the most cluttered place I had ever seen. You had to walk thru a maze of boxes, etc just to get from the doorway to the den.

 

I am now a Scoutmaster. My house has become that house.

[gwd-scouter]

Hah, I've enjoyed reading others in a similar predicament!

 

To Venividi: what wise words! Last night, our scouts elected new leaders. The quartermaster job was explained as being a job done outside of scout meetings - at our house since that's where the trailer is for a while. One of our newest scouts asked if he could do it. He thought it was really cool that he'd get to go to Mr. and Mrs. B's house and work with Mr. B (our ASM in charge of equipment - and also my husband). One of our older scouts who has recently become active again and wants to have an opportunity for a POR for Eagle, said he would help the young scout. This fits in very well with older scout since he is heavily involved in sports and misses most weekly meetings during his sports seasons, but is managing to attend a few campouts a year.

 

FScouter - unfortunately, as SM, I can't help but be in some ways involved with equipment since my husband is the ASM in charge of it. With the the help of these two scout quartermaster, it will be much easier.

 

 

[Venividi]

gwd-scouter-

 

Congrats on explaining the quartermaster job in a way that makes coming over to the scoutmaster's house one of the benefits of the job. And on involving an older scout to help him learn the job (I am assuming he will be a JASM.)

 

There is a certain point of pride in having a house messy with scouting stuff. It is consistent with the "what matters" verse we all love, and is certainly a sign of commitment that we live "what matters". Though when it comes to having TROOP equipment laying around the house, it is at odds with "never do a job a boy can do". Be proud of what your pile of personal "scouting stuff" says about your priorities. We should all do our best to avoid taking care of the "stuff" that can provide a scout with a meaningful feeling of responsibility and a successful sense of accomplishment with his POR.