Quest for Order

As I have already mentioned, I am very good at making messes and not so good at cleaning them up.   They say that creative minds are seldom tidy.  I am not sure if they are talking about the mind or the spaces around the creative person, but either way, I tend to create clutter.  The problem with this is that I am not someone who can live in complete chaos and be fine with it.  As an ambidextrous Gemini, I live with a war inside me.  I am a living, breathing contradiction to myself.   Clutter vs. Order.  Reason vs. Emotion.  It goes on and on.   But the complete absence of order starts to weigh on me.  As the piles grow, so does my anxiousness about them.  But rather than feel more motivated to get rid of them, I become more overwhelmed with their presence.   I don’t know where to start

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Well, a couple of weeks ago, I had purchased a Living Social deal for 3 hours of house cleaning.  I wanted to start off the year with a clean house and maybe then I could maintain it.  Maybe. The purchase forced me to pick things up and create some order so that when the angels from the cleaning service knocked on my door, they could do their thing.   So what did I do?  I piled it all in my closet, of course.  Oh, the shame.  The house was looking good, but I could not get to my pants. 

I had to call in reinforcements.   This time it was my friend Barbara.  She is no nonsense about the house purge.  She grew up in a military family that moved often and because of that, she does not hang on to stuff like I do.  They say a true friend is the one who holds your hair when you've had one too many margaritas.  This is true, but the very best kind of friend will hold the trash bag while you clean out your closet, and here’s the kicker, without judging.  (Or at least being kind enough to keep her judgment to herself!)  So on Friday, we went to work on my side of the closet.  Doug got really defensive when he knew what we were up to.  I swore I would not touch his extensive collection of beer shirts.  I also wouldn't touch the boxes of paper work collected over the years.  With these boundaries in place, I went into battle. 

   

I took everything out of the closet.  Truth be told, I really badly wanted to yank all of his stuff out, paint it a pretty color, install a closet system, and build some more shelves, but this day was more about just getting things in order.   It took about 3 hours, 3 Dr. Peppers,  6 trash bags to the local Community Outreach, 1 bag of garbage, and assorted recycling, but I, scratch that,  WE, did it. And here is the real indicator of friendship--when we do these things, Barbara hauls my stuff away!  It prevents the rest of the family from making a "dumpster dive" to rescue long forgotten or broken "treasures".  It also ensures that the stuff gets out of the house or I would find myself stepping over and around my trash bags for another month.   

If it weren’t for having Barbara there, I would have probably pulled all of the junk out and then decided I needed a nap.  I suffer from chore induced narcolepsy.  It is another medical condition.  I swear that nothing makes me more tired, more suddenly than a large chore at hand.  This medical condition explains the reason that I can fall asleep, Gasp!  The Horror!, with dishes in the sink!  I will never need Ambien.  I can just make a huge mess and by the time the mess is good and made, I am ready to sleep like a baby.  I think it is also a genetic disorder, because the words "Clean your room" are the only ones that ever, ever, make my daughter say, "I need a nap".    

For the first ever in the almost 7 years in my house, I have floor space in my half of the closet!  I have all my pretty colored Vera Bradley bags hung up. 

 I have the extra pillows piled up in the top of the closet, rather than in my rocking chair in my bedroom.  I can now sit there and read.  I put my small purses and hats in a hanging shoe organizer.  Ugly, but quite functional.  

All my pottery paint is on a shelf separate from my clothes and shoes.  And most importantly, my t-shirts have been greatly purged and segregated from my husband’s shirts.    It feels so good.   To celebrate,  I rewarded myself with a trip to the quilt store so I can start cutting out my next projects and making a big, huge mess!  The battle rages on......