Friday, decluttering

It is Friday again! TGIF! The whole week seemed super short. Yesterday I could actually see my whole dining room table! Wow. A sea of clean and people gathered round eating. The house is so pretty and spacious when it is decluttered.

Why do we clutter? Why do we hang on to things? Why do I clutter? Why do I have such a hard time letting go?

Some of the answer is inertia. Time goes by. I am busy, preoccupied, tired or spending so much time knitting (with the tv on) or at the computer that I don't notice the clutter. I don't notice the dishes piled unwashed in the sink until something begins to smell in the sink. Then I have a great washing up day and get it all clean. (In between these events, I wash items as I need them.) I do the laundry when it is time for my housecleaner to come and I know that I will need to have clean sheets so that she can change the bed for me, something that, in my wheelchair and with the spaces in my house, I cannot do.

I could say that I am disabled and it is harder for me to keep things free of clutter, but I don't even want to begin to use that as an excuse! Ok, sometimes I need to keep some things within easy reach. That need could be solved by better organization.

I tend to clutter more when I am feeling overwhelmed or depressed and then the clutter is confusing and depressing, so it seems that it is important to keep things straightened up to some extent.

Not having enough time is an excuse I use all of the time, but then I waste time looking for things that have been in my hand just recently! It would save time to be organized. Take time to do the things at hand. (My father always used to say, "Do the five minute jobs when they first come up." That way they wouldn't become thirty minute jobs while one back tracks and figures out where everything is, who needs to be contacted, etc.)

A friend suggested looking at the house and thinking about what I want to use the spaces for. That approach is working and I will continue to do so.

My "big room" or studio is also my "happiness room" because it so pretty. I hope to finish putting everything away in the next week. it is a space to retreat to and will soon be a space to use for creative projects.

Now I need to find the one thing that I really need that I can't find from decluttering the dining room table yesterday!

Friday--the week went fast

Already the week is almost over! It seems to have barely started. Blogging in the morning, as with most writing, seems to work best for me.

Yesterday more wall was primed. When full, the rooms of my house seem small. When being painted, the same rooms seem to grow. Primer has a pungent smell of its own; I will be glad when that smell isn't in the house any longer. It drives out even cooking and baking smells. Today will be another painting day and the pale, pale green will cover the primer. I am so excited and grateful to M and her friend J for doing this for me.

The paint itself smells new. New paint, new paper, new leather shoes, new books. New smells speak of new beginnings and are associated in my mind with the beginning of a new academic year. After all I didn't leave school until I was in my thirties and even during the years between college and graduate school I was associated with a university by continuing to sing in a choir and by spending several years on the staff of a campus ministry program. (More about that probably some day.)

The days are getting shorter. Daylight streams into my house at what I consider to be a more civil hour and sunset, coming a little earlier now, gives me a sense of relief that even should the weather turn hot, I will not cook in my house. (Last year's killer heat wave in California scared me.)