releasing the old

Housekeeping

I am a terrible housekeeper. No, seriously. I suck at keeping my house clean. Now, it’s no pig sty. There are no mounds of garbage, or unknown items growing a consciousness of their own.

Sure, the occasional leftovers get left in the refrigerator too long. And there are cobwebs near the ceiling. And I almost never dust. Or the candy wrappers stack up in my boys’ room until I get so frustrated that I go in and make them clean. It takes me quite a long time to get to that point, though.

old flower crownI’m awful about having too much clutter. Things come in, and I just set them aside to deal with later. Clutter stacks up in around my desk, in my room, and, let’s just be honest. It builds up everywhere. Because frankly, most of the time I just have too many other, more important things to do than clean.

Last week, the new mattress that my husband and I ordered over a month ago finally arrived. (A new mattress is such an amazing blessing!) We’ve had a king size mattress since I was pregnant with my middle child, because we co-slept with the boys when they were wee. Now that our children are no longer so small or sleeping in our bed, we thought it might be nicer to be closer to each other once again. And not be separated by a huge lump in the middle of the mattress!

So we downsized to a queen mattress. Which also meant new sheets, and while we were at it, new duvets. (Partly because the boys REALLY needed new blankets, and it was just as easy to pass our old duvets down. And while we’re in the aside, yes, we have separate duvets. I think it is a great idea for any happy marriage! And can I just say, OMG! Wool duvet!)

A smaller mattress means more space in our room, provided I dealt with some of the clutter that had built up. I planned for that, though. We bought a platform instead of a box spring, and voila! Tons of storage space under the bed!

However, part of the reason I don’t clean often is because when I do, I’m thorough. VERY thorough. I had to wait until I had a day to poke away at the cleaning and rearranging and cleaning some more. Today was that day. (Thank heavens for statutory holidays!)

releasing the oldI swept. I washed the floor. I moved boxes. I swept off boxes. I cleaned the many layers of dust off of (some of) my storage containers. I wiped down (parts) of the walls. OK. Maybe I wasn’t as thorough today I as I have been in the past. Still, I was more thorough than others might have been!

My room is tidy. (Well, tidier than it was. Just don’t look at the tops of the dressers… I’ll get there.) I released some things I don’t need any more – some shoes, clothes, papers, a list of wishes from 1997 (all of which I’ve received), and a flower crown that I made on my first Peaceful Woman retreat in 2008.

I can’t promise it will stay so neat. I can’t promise that my whole house will get cleaned, at least not in the near future. And it still feels good to do a really good job on at least a little bit of it.

Blessings,

Mary

2 thoughts on “Housekeeping”

  1. Remember not all clutter is clutter, some are treasures.. Some think my crystals are clutter, and in their next breath they comment on the calm and peacefullness they feel here…they have not made the connection of knowledge to my treasures ( crystals )…

    Always having neat and tidy would be nice but not everyone can afford a housekeeper.. They would not be allowed to touch my Treasured Crystals at any cost..

    Loved your blog Mary.. Thank you

  2. Thank you, Jeri! Yes, a lot of my clutter is sacred items – crystals and statues and art – and there’s a lot of other clutter as well! Oh, to have a housekeeper…

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