I love the blue Colorado skies, but man… It’s HOT here. I’m all sweaty, all the time. (TMI?) In England just last week, I was wearing sweaters and long pants. Here, the thought of a sweater makes me want to stick my head in the freezer. Or fill up a kiddie pool with crushed ice. Or put a snow cone down the back of my shirt.
You get the gist. It's hot.
In the middle of the hotness, I got the uncontrollable urge to do a massive cleanup and reorganization project around the house. We had only been here a day, and it was as if the entire contents of the house had exploded all over the floors. It’s such a small house, and there’s just not anyplace to put anything. We only have one closet in the entire house, and it’s been full for years. Now, the basement is full. The storage shed is full. There’s nowhere left to spread out. It's impossible to keep this place clean and clutter-free.
I decided that we immediately needed more places to put things away, so I started clearing off shelves. I cleaned off Frankie’s bookshelf, organized her toys, made up a pile of things for the Goodwill. The biggest part of the project was a massive cleanout of the books that Matt and I have accumulated over the years. Mercelessly, I cleaned everything out and made a gigantic pile of books on the bedroom floor. It took five trips with a giant wheelbarrow to get everything out of the house and loaded into Matt’s car. The entire hatchback of his car was full of books. I can’t even begin to estimate how many we gave away. 200 books? 300? More? The guy at the Goodwill filled 2 shopping carts, a big box, and part of one of those big rolling bins up with all of our books. Even he was amazed, claiming he was going to be telling the story of the “book family” for weeks to come.
I thought I was going to have a hard time saying goodbye to the book collection, but it wasn't at all. I use an e-reader these days, and can't even imagine actually picking up an old-school paperback. Honestly it felt so good to let all of those old books go. Still does. And there’s so much more shelf space in here now. It seems much less cluttered, especially in Frankie’s room.
Now, time to relax with some Chinese food. Yay!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
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2 comments:
Parallel lives again, my friend. As soon as school starts, I'm going to walk through each room of this house with garbage bags in hand. Momma wants this house organized! Congratulations on your de-cluttering. It feels so good!
I am totally with you both. I gave away 4 boxes and then some of just books. I am going throught the whole house in retirement and weeding things out. Some of it is keepsakes from Matt and Erin that has to go. I think those shows on horders is getting to me.
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