declutter nation

So, as you may (or may not) know, I've been trying really hard to a) clean my house and b) keep it clean.

Well, let me tell you: it is hard to clean when a good amount of the STUFF in your house is just that, STUFF. Clutter, clutter, clutter, and, you guessed it, more clutter. So I haven't been focusing on cleaning my house this last week or so; I've been focused on decluttering. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I'll be moving in December, and I don't want to have to pack/move more than is necessary. So I've purged the closets and dressers, Camden's toys, the kitchen, the bathroom. I've thrown away a lot of STUFF that I didn't even know I had (which means it was obviously unimportant). I think I managed to donate at least half as much again as I threw in the trash.

So my "messy house" is still somewhat messy, but just being rid of all those bags full of unnecessary STUFF makes it seem so much more manageable. (The little bit of organization I did in the process doesn't hurt, either!!!) I'm still not quite finished. I still have my desk in the living room with four drawers filled with random STUFF and my TV stand, which has amassed DVD cases and video games (that I don't play, so I may be making a trip to Hastings to sell them off and maybe earn a few dollars).

What's so great about having an uncluttered house? (Aside from not having all that extra STUFF to find places for and keep picked up and organized and cleaned, I mean.) Well, I don't know about you, but clutter stresses me out! Seeing all that STUFF all the time, never knowing what to do with it... It makes for a relatively stressful living situation. And inviting friends over (or having surprise visitors) is just a mess. Before I could invite someone over, I had to make sure I had time to pick up the house. Now that I'm enjoying less STUFF, I can invite someone over for dinner (the same night as the invitation) and not rush home to clean like a madwoman. I can go home and straighten up for ten minutes or so, because that's all it needs.

Things seem so much easier when I have space. My counters are not clear by any means, but they are clear to the point where I can set something down without worrying about knocking over seven other things. My coffee table and night stand are the same way. Will I ever have completely bare surfaces? Not likely. Am I happy with what I have now? Yes, totally. And that was the point of this whole exercise. To make my house comfortable--for me. And now it is (and is becoming more so as I continue to find the odd thing that I'm okay with letting go).

quest for a clean house (again...still?)

My house/apartment/living quarters is generally a huge mess. Not necessarily dirty, though sometimes it is that, too, but toys/projects spread out everywhere and on every surface, beds unmade, clothes here and there (clean or dirty), papers in every corner imaginable, etc. Ever so often, I'll clean a room top to bottom (usually when I'm wanting to move a piece of furniture about) and I'll tell myself that this time it will stay clean. And... It never does.

I think I've figured out what my problem is. Okay, well, I have lots of problems. My first is that I was never required to pick my stuff up when I was a kid. (Glad my mom doesn't read this blog. She'd kill me.) So I never developed that habit. And keeping a whole room is a lot of work. Okay, it's not. But when you don't have that cleaning habit, it becomes a lot of work, because you have to remind yourself about every little thing. (Maybe I'm just a messy, lazy person looking for excuses?)

So instead of tackling the entire house, I've decided to build up to it. While the majority of my house exists as the usual messy state, two areas are clean! And they've been that way for a week. I've been making my bed every morning. Not a big thing, but like I said, I'm building up. I've also been washing dishes before I go to bed. I either do them after dinner, or right before I go to bed. Last night I was focused on homework and ended up not getting to them until 11.30, when I thought "I'll just get them in the morning" but then forced myself to wash them anyway. Took five minutes.

My next step? Keeping the living room floor and tables clear. Starting Monday.

I'm hoping this will help me form these clean habits, and I'm hoping even more that the habits will stick from this apartment to the next.

Bedtime story

Once upon a time a girl wanted a bed. Not just any bed. A bed that she could store stuff under. Or build forts under. And so, her dad built her one. An amazing four poster bed with plenty of crawl space beneath. The girl loved her bed, except that it wobbled to and fro. When she leaned on the foot of the bed, it would move an alarming amount. This wobbling to and fro eventually led to the destruction of the bed's metal parts.

"But do not be alarmed, child; I will fix it. I have new steel hangers that are indestructible," said her father.

So her father came to visit. He took the broken, flimsy hangers off the bed parts, and put on the new indestructible parts. It was not easy. They did not want to fit. "Ah, but this is good," thought the girl, "for if they are this tight putting together, my bed will no longer wobble to and fro!" And much cursing and hammer pounding and more cursing later, the girl's bed was as good as new. Better than new, for now it had indestructible parts. And lots of screws to help steady it even more.

After five months of having the bed against wall A, the girl decided she wanted the bed to be against wall B. She pulled and tugged and huffed and puffed and cursed and spat, but the bed would not budge! "No problem," said she, "I'll just take off the mattress. Sure then it will move!" So she easily slid the mattress off the bed, only nearly knocking a shadow box from the wall.

"But what is this strange button?" she asked, finding a black circular peg thingy. Looking closer, she sees that it's the peg from one of the hangers. One of the indestructible hangers. Looking even closer, she sees that both the tabs for the hanger is missing! "Noooo!"

Instead of further defying a sure death from sleeping on a broken bed, the girl decided to dismantle the bed. But, alas! As she was removing all of those extra steadying screws, two strip! And another broke off at the head. She looked and searched for something to help, but nothing she found could.

Of she went, on her quest to remove the screws from the bed. First to one store, where an employee handed her something saying, "This will work!" Back home went she, only to find out that the employee must have been the villagestore idiot, because there was no way that tool would work, since it was designed for a specific type of screw. So she returned the failed merchandise and searched out another store. Here, they sold her a tool that she was sure would work. So she got home and tried it... Only to find out that she's not quite smart enough to make it work.

Eventually, after much man-handling and more cursing and spitting, huffing and puffing, and pulling and tugging, the girl managed to get the boards free from the defective screws.

And from that moment, she decided that that bed would never enter her home again. And she lived happily ever after, even if she was relegated to sleeping on a mattress on the floor like some teenager.

My week is AWESOME

This week has been surprisingly good. I think I owe it to the wish bottle I made on Tuesday. In it is a little feather and a flying seed. (Ever since it got warm, Cam and I have been picking up these seeds, telling them our wishes, then sending them off.) I didn't make any specific wish, just made this be a focal point for growing happiness, love, etc. So maybe it isn't a wish bottle, per se, but, eh, whatever.



And the same night I made the wish bottle, Camden decided it would be fun to help me with dishes. So I let him rinse. I tried letting him actually washing stuff (he wanted to), but he wasn't doing so well with that.

And today, I passed my prelim! My senior percussion recital is this semester (in three weeks, actually) and I had to play through everything today for three faculty, who then told me that I was free to continue on to my recital! I have no idea what would have happened if I hadn't passed, but it doesn't really matter now! This has been a big cause of stress for me this week, and I'm just happy that I did well and passed. I still have some stuff to work on before my recital, so I'm not quite out of the woods yet, but I'm closer.

(I also had a good week at the thrift store... Finding two tee-shirts, a dress shirt, dress slacks, skirt, ACORN earrings (these are just amazing!), and a dainty little bird necklace. Usually my finds are not this great, or as plentiful.)

Of course, the week hasn't been all great. On Ostara, it was close to 80 degrees outside. It was beautiful. Last night, it snowed. And the snow stuck! Well, it stuck to trees and grass and bushes and cars. Okay, it was actually kinda pretty and I wish I'd gotten a picture of it. Hopefully this taste of winter won't last too long and we'll be back to the beautiful spring weather.

Cleaning house

My last apartment was a mess most of the time. As embarrassing as it is to say, I'm not talking about the "oh, sorry about the mess" when there's maybe a spot of dirt on a vase in the corner. I'm talking about a small path leading from one room to the next, with the rest of the floor containing toys, books, dirty clothes, clean clothes, etc. (But not rotting food or anything of that nature. Not dirt or filth or refuse. Just stuff). Every once in a while, I would get the urge to clean. This urge was usually accompanied by the urge to move furniture, which often required a clear floor. But I always got too busy. Or too tired. Or too uncaring. And within two weeks, my place would once again be filled with landmines made from pokey toys or books. By the time I decided to move out, I just stopped worrying about it. I figured I'd take care of it in the move. And that once I got to my new place, I would have a fresh, clean start.

However, it didn't really work out that way. Yes, I had a fresh, clean start. However, that attitude and those habits I failed to cultivate in my previous apartment(s) didn't just magically appear. My new apartment was supposed to have a place for everything with everything in its place. But neither Cam nor I were very good at picking up our messes. :/ Granted, there were no longer toys in the living room: those had been sequestered to Cam's bedroom. But other things just filled it up. And I continued on with being too busy, too tired, too uncaring. I looked past the mess. I looked straight to the TV or the computer screen or my book. A messy place isn't a problem if you don't see it.

And then I did see it. And I decided I was tired of it. I started in Cam's room. Cleaned, put things away, purged, rearranged furniture (of course). I did that last weekend. And all this week it's been "make sure everything gets put away, Cam." And surprise, his room is still clean. A week later. This never happens. And through a serious of unfortunate events (Columbus Day, Cam having a fever, daycare closed to move to a new building) I was home most of the week. I had one full day at school, and the rest were mostly me going in for a test or a rehearsal. So my time spent at home was spent expanding the clean bubble to the rest of the house. It helped that I was upset about something (I don't even remember) at least one of those days, which always helps fuel my drive to clean. So I have a clean bathroom, a clean(ish) bedroom (not including my closet though), a clean living room, and a generally clean/uncluttered kitchen. The kitchen still needs a bit of work (ie, I need to knock a wall out and claim some of my neighbor's space to put in more storage). But all in all, my house is clean.

It's still a work in progress. It's still a struggle. But it's getting easier. After my walk-through tonight before bed, the living room will be in the same state it was in Wednesday when I cleaned. And that, for me, is a miracle. (One might even say magic).

It's more than just having a clean/nice place for the random chance someone might stop by, though. A home should be a sanctuary from the chaos of the world, and if that home is chaotic, what sanctuary can one find? I've found in the last few days that I'm happier and calmer. I have the space to free my thoughts and think. And I'm enjoying the time I spend at home.

Spring cleaning

Today I cleaned. And cleaned. And cleaned some more. One reason is the spring cleaning bug bit me, I think. I would like to start of the Spring season with a clean apartment. Actually, I'd like to start off *any* season with a clean apartment. Maybe this time the apartment will stay cleaner for longer than four hours? Not likely, but I have hopes!

Another reason for the deep cleaning, other than the fact that it needed to be done, is I'm trying to prepare for moving day in May. Although we're moving from a one bedroom loft to a two bedroom duplex, I don't think the new apartment is actually bigger than my current one, just rearranged differently. Which means there's no way I'm carting all the stuff we have here into the new place. Mainly stuff in the form of clothing and toys. Because, obviously, I need all of my kitchen stuff, despite the fact the new kitchen is about half the size of my current one.

So lots of clothes, toys, and books have been boxed/bagged up for yard sale fodder or donation, or they've been trashed if completely unusable. And thanks to the decluttering, I was able to rearrange the toy corner, so the toys are once again contained and hopefully not spilling out to the rest of the living room. And Camden can reach all of his toys and games without my assistance.

Like anything, it will take work to maintain. I'm hoping I can train teach Camden that picking up his toys is better than leaving them lying about; hopefully, I can convince myself of that, too!

Real snow day!

Today, I had a real snow day. As I told my dad, "Cam was snowed out, and I'm snowed in." Cam's daycare cancelled thanks to our almost-blizzard yesterday/last night. I had planned on taking him to classes with me today, until I saw my car surrounded by two feet of snow! Even after attempting to dig it out, he (my car) was in no mood to go anywhere. Luckily, we managed to escape this afternoon once it warmed up and I was willing to dig out snow and ice from underneath the car.

While I didn't get to have any adventures today, I did have some exciting stuff happen! Such as: this morning as I was trying to shovel snow away from my car I hear someone yell "Smile, you're on being filmed!" So I jerk upright, look around, only to see someone with a fancy camera pointed at me. I'm assuming it was someone from the newspaper out taking photos of the blizzard-ravaged town and not just some creeper.

Since we were snowed in anyway, I took advantage of the situation to continue my cleaning. Did two loads of laundry. Would have done more (I have about 1.5 loads left) but I have only so much space for hanging it up to dry. I also cleaned the living room (again) and swept the kitchen and bathroom floors. And I planted some lavender and bell pepper seeds. Hopefully they will grow.

I also got books in the mail today, which is always exciting. One is a CLEP study book so I don't have to take boring science classes and the other is Wicca: A Year and a Day by Timothy Roderick. Now, as you know, I'm not Wiccan. But I am a mish-mash of different paths, Wicca among them. And besides, this will give me a bit of spirituality every day for a year and a day. Maybe I'll end up Wiccan at the end of it. (Probably not.)

I decided I want to start a book of shadows. I have one on my computer: it's a folder called "Paganity" and contains all the general shadowy stuff witches are supposed to have. But I'd like one where I can flip through the pages, and put in more than just words. Dried flowers, herbs, photographs, drawings. Something more than just a bunch of .txt files.

And last, but not least, I found and returned a lost cat! I heard it meowing out in the hall, so I stuck my head out, thinking maybe someone let their cat come along to do laundry with them. But, no, it was standing outside a door meowing with no humans in sight! I knocked on the door it was meowing at, but they don't have a cat. After some hemhawing, I carried it upstairs and tell it to go home. And, very cat-like, it just stared at me and meowed. So, I headed back downstairs, planning on just abandoning it (it was safely indoors; someone would have found it eventually) and met a lady on her way up... I decided to take a chance.

"Do you happen to have a cat?"

Funny look. "Yes"

"Uhm. Is it orange?"

Pause. Another funny look. "Yes."

"Oh, I think it escaped. I just dropped it off upstairs."

Confused expression. "Oh no!" Dashing upstairs. I hear her ask the cat "What are you doing out here!?"

While living in an apartment building is mostly unfun (what with loud neighbours and stairs and all that nonsense) sometimes it can be really amusing.