Bags of stuff to donate
I’m on a mission. Over the past several years my house has gotten cluttered. I can usually keep the main level livable but the rest is getting overtaken with stuff. Anytime we have company, extra things get tossed in my office. I can’t even work in my office anymore, it’s much too crowded. When I write I go to the kitchen, it’s open, has lots of light and is relatively uncluttered, but it would be nice to be able to use my office if I felt like it.
So the daunting task is underway. It started a couple of weeks ago when my kids and I cleared out their rooms. We sent bags of clothes to Goodwill, and then I hit my closet and did the same. This week I focused on my office, the worst room in the house, where now the floor is covered in piles of paperwork. Personal and business bills and invoices to be filed, coaching notebooks and paperwork from the last five seasons and summer camps, miscellaneous books, leftover graduation preparations and photos from my daughters graduation last spring, you name it, this is the spot where every extra thing lands. But not for long.
Because when I started this job of clearing my space, I also decided to listen to a book. And the book that popped out at me, as I was figuring out how to download an audio file to my phone (I was used to checking out CD’s from the library), was The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Condo. It was meant to be.
It was nice to have support and ideas straight from the book to help in my tidying process, because it’s not happening overnight, and though I don’t agree with everything the author writes about, the one big take away from Ms. Condo’s book that I am working to apply, is to tidy the entire house. I want to start with a clean slate and have a place for everything. It’s not easy when you’ve lived in a house for 20 years, but I’m on a mission. I’ve already made several trips to donate and consign tons of things that no longer bring me joy, things that others will like but had been weighing on me.
I can’t wait to breathe deep and feel an openness in my house, and in my soul, when the job is done.
WRITING PROMPT #1: What brings you joy?
WRITING PROMPT #2: Stepping over a pizza box as she entered the trailer, Candice…
Inspired, thank you!