Clutter is ending in fluttering frenzy.

I am on a deep cleaning frenzy. I woke up at 4AM and could not go back to sleep. Rather than lay in bed wasting time, I chose to get up and be productive.

I am, I will admit, a generally lazy and messy person, if left to my own tendencies. My mother can vouch for this; as a child and a teenager, my room always looked like a tornado had hit it. I just always had better and more important things to do than the simple task of picking up after myself.

Alas, this has persisted into adulthood, and I wage constant war against disorder. This is quite strange, considering that if my surroundings are messy, my life is messy, and I cannot effectively function. If they are clean and orderly, so is my life. Clutter in my environment equates to a cluttered mind that is utterly squelched. Setting things right clears room for creativity and motivated action.

When I was in Sweden, one thing I noticed was how people over there don’t have a mountain of STUFF. They keep only what they need, waste nothing, and do not hesitate to discard what they do not use. This results in an almost blank palette upon which they paint the more important aspects of their lives, loves, and leisures. This is an aesthetic I would very much like to emulate.

I am not a pathological hoarder, but I do tend to keep stuff that I don’t use. Every few years, I will grudgingly throw out, donate, or sell items I don’t want. I have despite this still managed to accumulate a house and garage full of stuff that I now see as JUNK. Well, this ends now. I am going to go through every single item in my possession and if I have not used it in a year, I am getting rid if it. Except my books and music… but even the bulk of that collection is getting moved to my garage, or boxed up.

Bathroom first. Tiny little room, really. And yet, I managed to somehow fill a huge trash bag full of old make-up, expired over-the-counter meds, grooming items that I no longer use, and general crap. Frickin’ wow. I still seem to be keeping an awful lot of things… maybe this is only step one, and in a few weeks I will do this again, and get rid of even more stuff. Once the clearing was done, I cleaned it from top to bottom, a good deep clean that I should do every couple of months (I live alone), but have only done maybe once a year since moving in. It is positively gleaming now!! Wow this feels really good. It took – are you ready for this – three hours. For one teeny little room. This project could take days, and that’s only the house. The garage is much worse.

I have to leave for work in a bit… I am seeing my boyfriend tonight, but will try to get one more room done before he arrives: the bedroom. ;-)