more than tidying

I’m not finished. (Will I ever finish?)

But I am making progress. I started small, with my bathroom drawers. Tossed old sunscreen, lipsticks, perfume samples. (I haven’t worn perfume for about 10 years, when my sense of smell got sensitive.) Put all the fancy soaps in one drawer (I actually use them, gifts from a friend, but I have a deep stockpile — I think she forgets she gives me good soap nearly twice a year). Lotions & potions find the other drawer. Cleaned the medicine cabinet.

It began by not ignoring the  partially emptied lotion bottles anymore, the kind that still have “good stuff” in them, but beyond the reach of the pump. I removed caps & apparatus, placed bottles on their sides, where I was compelled to finish them off and recycle the containers. I’m nearly down to one lotion bottle again.

It started by wanting to de-junk, de-clutter. It started because housekeeping is usually a good way to cleanse the head, especially when it’s raining. It started because I have a little more time these days, being underemployed. It started because, “if not now, when.”

When my husband retired 18 months ago he gave over this desk to me, and we placed a smaller one on the west side of the office for him. (This is south facing — to my front yard. An old rhoady is in the background.)

The intent was to move my school-desk from upstairs (I graduated two years ago) and  make the bedroom more bedroomy again. Well, now I have two desks, each equally disorganized, each covered with “stuff” I need to find a home for or get rid of.

It’s challenged by my mother getting rid of her junk — so now I have a bunch of childhood “treasures” I don’t want to have out in the house, but I don’t have the heart to get rid of, yet.

An acquaintance once gave me a great hint about the “mother gifts” one doesn’t want to use or have have sitting “out” but that, if not seen on a visit, would hurt Mom’s feelings: Put them away 95% of the time, and bring them out for the visit. I have a storage box in the attic filled with such things. It’s time for a new box. And perhaps one day I simply give the whole box to a charity — it would already be a box packed and ready to go.

Slow work, but the house is getting de-cluttered. This desk, my desk — shown in it’s crazy, in the middle stage — now has a horizontal wood grain that is visible over 45% of the surface.

The upstairs desk is a mess, but I have my sights set on it this week & weekend. The weather is still bad, Mark is driving to see family in Norther California over the long weekend, and I will get that desk undone, too. I’d like to replace it with a new custom bookcase — but that will have to wait for funding. I can at least move all my writing projects to one place and create some open space.

Nothing is better than junk.

Ha! A revealing sentence, don’t you think?

After the desk comes the attic — a project complicated by a kitchen remodel many years ago. I had gotten a start on going through it, but a bunch of kitchen stuff got relocated during construction and so it is a big mess, too. Bigger, actually.

After the attic comes the pictures. 15 years worth of photos.

And then the outside shed. (Maybe my husband will do that one.)

All plans are subject to interruption by good weather and the joy of hiking and gardening. And maybe getting back to full-time work. (There is a boss-hint the summer could end up being busy; we”ll see how it plays out.)

I better stay on this cleaning binge as long as I can.

Related posts:

1. Tuesday confessionional
2. Confession Tuesday
3. pssst: about that dark little room off the aisle
4. Confession Tuesday (deb’s via free write)
5. Confession Tuesday (deb’s via free write)