Category: cleaning

The Stress of Too Many _ _ _ _

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 19 Comments
(this is NOT my house)

Collectors, beware.

Souvenir shoppers beware.

Old People, beware.

There is this disease of sorts that seems to be running around the world these days — worse than Covid 19, worse than malaria. Well, worse in the fact that so many of us suffer from it.

Sometimes we recognize the symptoms and can live with them; other times we ignore the signs until it’s too late. It can strike young, middle-aged, or old people. 

Yes, it’s a people disease.

It’s called SAVING THINGS.

Come on, be honest — how many of you have way too many unicorns, shot glasses, signs, or spoons from places you visited 40 years ago? Your kids baby teeth, their first artwork, their second artwork, their 354th artwork. Yard implements you might someday actually use. Cute pots you may eventually use to transplant overgrown houseplants. A jungle where your patio door used to be.

I’ve felt the strain of this disease for years. Years ago our kids lived with us for a while while looking for a new house. They found one. Half of their stuff was moved out. Five  years later they found another house. The rest of their stuff finally found its way to the door.

I was getting close to 70 (still am), and find I cannot handle all this clutter I’ve collected through the years. I thought I binge cleaned and donated a few times already but this disease is like watching a pot of water boil… little bubbles keep popping up, one bubble at a time, until you turn around and the pot is boiling over.

What made me think of this is looking out on my front deck at three dogs. None are my original choice, but I opened my heart and took them in at various times in my life. No regrets.

Except there’s too many dogs in my house.

I am getting old and need peace and quiet. 

Maybe that’s why I’m purging my house of knickknacks and extra rugs and baby toys and all sorts of things that have long outgrown their use. It’s not hoarder stuff — it’s clutter stuff. 

I think that’s worse.

I need to be able to walk through a room without knocking something over, or smile fondly at a few unicorns in a cabinet and not think of having to dust 00 more or stop tripping over the pots I’ve stacked by the back door to bring to Good Will a month ago. I want to go for a walk without having to yell a three sniffers/wanderers/adventurers to get back here or else.

Ahhh…. my dream world.

What is yours?

 

 

What To Do With The Past

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 20 Comments

Okay. Okay okay okay.

I haven’t written anything on my latest novel. I have barely made any Angel Tears. I haven’t read much of my book about the Titanic nor started my sparkly bead tapestry.

I’ve actually been busy redirecting, rearranging, repainting and re-carpeting my bathroom, closet, and bedroom.

That’s not a big deal.

Well, it is.

Everything I own from two of those rooms are in three big plastic containers or in a big huge snow-like pile in another room.

Twenty-some years of clothes, jewelry, unicorns, jewelry boxes, hats, colognes, TV remotes, cards, beads, used football tickets, and more.

Now that I have brand new carpeting, a new shower and cabinets in the bathroom, closet shelves, black-out blinds, and two less pieces of furniture, I’m lost.

I am fortunate. Of this I have no doubt. This is my hubby and my last hurrah before he retires in a year. What will be here will be it. My retirement in paradise will be parenthesized by what we are able to do these months.

But these are new colors for me. New style. Sanded and re-stained furniture. Even plants in the bathroom.

What am I supposed to do with all these leftovers?

I already reorganized my bathroom drawers. Got rid of tons of stuff, bought little clear bins to organize, even learned how to fold bath towels a new way so they’d fit in the new cabinet.

But the things in these bins.

Like the things still lurking in my breakfront in the livingroom and on the shelves in my work room downstairs.

Memories, souvenirs. Slips and scraps of the past I’ve kept all these years. Chicago Bears tickets, games I went to with my sons. Jewelry I wore when I worked. Cards from my grandkids. Hair clips and party beads and little green tiaras and a sun hat with bling I made 15 years ago because it was “the” thing.

Unicorn statues out the gazoo. A unicorn rug my late mother in law made for me to hang on the wall. A cool street painting from Las Vegas we picked up 25 years ago. A bell ringing tapestry from the Renaissance Faire when I used to go.

So many things that bring back so many memories.

Yet I’m doing my best to downsize.

I have done a lot of that throughout my house this past year as I’ve remodeled and repainted rooms. I have cleaned out three hoarder houses in my life and do not want my kids to have to go through that with my junk.

How do I decide what to keep?

How do I decide what to give away?

How do I decide what to give to Good Will?

A bunch of said items came from Good Will once upon a time. That world is a treasure trove of helpful items, wall paintings, water pitchers and plates for under plants and wrought iron planters.

But I digress.

This will be the hardest thing I’ve had to do in a while. And memories are a sensitive subject in my life at the moment, too, if you remember. Make them, keep them, I always say.

I have told myself that I should give a few things to the girl grandbaby, but not too many. She doesn’t need an old granny’s junk in her bedroom at four years old. I should ask a few people I know if they would like this or that, knowing that they would.

The remainder?

Send them with love and kiss back into the world so they can bring joy to others. I mean, who couldn’t use New Orleans party beads or pretty bling bracelets and earrings?

Okay — that takes care of three things —

 

 

 

 

I’m Too Old To Be This Busy

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 18 Comments

I’ve been quite busy lately, helping my kids update and fix up their new house before they move in next month.

I have never been a cleaner by choice. I’ve survived, my kids have survived, yet my house has never been a front runner for Architectural Digest or Better Homes and Gardens.

Because of both retirement and Covid, my house is the cleanest it’s ever been. I have a new refrigerator that I keep meticulously clean, and my clean counters and organized pantry are finally proof of my boredom.

I mean, I’ve always been clean — I’ve just always been messy. Disheveled. Sidetracked. At the end of the night before I go to bed I retrace my steps of the day and take 20 minutes putting everything back where it came from.

I so envy my daughter-in-law. She is clean, organized, and keeps up after three kiddos, a husband, and a dog. I’m always getting organizing ideas from her, including bins, shelves, and lists. 

I’m lucky if I can sort yesterday’s pj’s from last week’s.

Every time I come home from her house I am inspired to put more away, get rid of more clutter, and organize the rest so that I can find what I want when I want. 

But I believe it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

I still have a tendency to go three directions at one time, start projects I don’t finish, and extend my energy way past my 68-year-old limit. I want to do ten things at one time, including art projects, writing a new novel, sewing beads on my t-shirts, finishing the two books I started reading, and watching a 52-part Chinese TV series with English subtitles.

One thing is pretty darned clear.

I will have to live until I’m at least 95.

I can’t see getting everything done and organized before then.

 

Cleaning Up Your Act

~ humoringthegoddess ~ 13 Comments

My friend Chrissy over at Chrissy’s Fab 50’s has been blogging about going through her closets and drawers and other places of secret stashes and cleaning out, rearranging, and thinning out her house — and life.

I love it.

Over the last few months I have been cleaning up and straightening out too. I am so proud of my (finally) thinned out and organized closet, and am eyeing the buffet in the dining room as we speak.

I have also been cleaning up, straightening up, and re-evaluating my Sunday Evening Art Gallery blog. I’ve been checking links and spacing and image sizes, trying to make it more esthetically pleasing.

That may not sound like a big deal to most. That is because most take care and time the first time around. 

I just feel like I didn’t take enough time with my work. With my presentation. Like I ran helter skelter around the woods looking for violets when if I would have just followed the path I would have found them.

It’s not that I didn’t pay attention — I did. I loved the art, I loved the showcase. But these days I can’t help but wonder — where was I going when I was in such a hurry to post in the first place? What was so important that I couldn’t have used a little more time to make a precise, pleasant presentation?

This is the funny thing.

The older I get, the more precise I’m becoming. The more organized I’m becoming. The more thorough I’m becoming.

Maybe that’s because the older I get, the more I’m forgetting. The more I’m knocking things off the shelf and knocking things over. The more I lose things, break things, forget things.

Cleaning up my blog or my closet or my pantry are ways to take back what control I still have over my body and my mind.

The positive thing out of all of this is that you’re never too old — or young — to pay attention to anything you do the first time. Or the second time. There’s always time for cleaning up your act. 

Don’t be in such a hurry. Take pride in everything you do. Everything. It sounds so simple, but in reality it’s quite hard. We all have places to go, projects to finish, schedules to keep. 

But our personal space, our personal Art, is just as important as keeping precise spreadsheets at work. You don’t need to be perfect — you just need to pay attention. Take your time. Do it right. Clean it out. Straighten it up.

You’ll love your outer space — and your inner self — when you’re finished.