It's always in the last place you look.

So my regular readers know that I've been in the midst of a light bulb conundrum. To get you up to speed if you're new to this place, I bought a crap-ton of energy-saving light bulbs last year at Ace Hardware, five for 4.99. And I can't find them anywhere. It's not like they're teeny, akin to the size of light bulbs for The Borrowers, or mice if they required illumination and had opposable thumbs.

I need the light bulbs. It's not imperative at this point, but my cool ballerina lamp needs a light bulb, and one light in the bathroom is fried.

Maybe I fear some subtle judgment. Maybe somewhere deep in my noggin I sense that visitors to my home think to themselves, I know she's a busy person, but how hard is it to replace a light bulb? Jeez!

If my missing light bulbs weren't enough of an annoyance, my printer has run out of ink. I know I have a whole bunch of cartridges around here somewhere. Like light bulbs, cartridges aren't something a person uses every day. So there's a bit of justification for not knowing the whereabouts of these infrequently used items.

But I got frustrated today, because I want to find what I know I have, somewhere.

I like to ramble on my days off, but today I stayed home. I cleaned like a crazy person.

And now I'll inject a visual. This is what my dog did today while I cleaned:

My cleaning day included - but was not limited to - the following:

the front closet
the linen closet
under the kitchen sink
the ishiest bathroom drawer
the armoir

In the process of this organizational madness, I found a whole bunch of stuff to inject back into the lifeblood of the thrift stores.

It seems like I'm constantly yapping at my older son to get organized, and I realized today that I haven't taken my own advice.

So now, at the end of the day, there's no danger of being impaled by a blunt object if you open my front closet. You can actually find a bar of soap or a hand towel in my linen closet. The fire extinguisher is at the ready under the sink, and the surface under the sink looks pristine.

And I loaded a trunk-load of items that I'll deliver to a thrift store tomorrow.

And what of the light bulbs? Did I find my ink cartridges?

No.

As the day of cleaning was winding down and I'd been with myself all day with lots of time to think, I realized that I could buy a few more bulbs, and even though I'd rather not, I'll get another ink cartridge if I have to. I don't want to have to go through this mayhem again.

Although it's nice to introduce some order into my life.

And I have a bunch of cool stuff I'll donate tomorrow that I don't have to wade through any more.

I'm still highly curious, though. Where are my light bulbs and ink cartridges?

As my mom used to say, they're always in the last place you look.