Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Spring Cleaning...Day 2






Day 2: The Living Room
The job for today was to organize the living room. I get to spend two days in this area, and since my living room was pretty well organized, I got down to the business of cleaning. I moved the Christmas tree (cast iron stand and all, since I couldn't get the base unscrewed) to the backyard for Jeffrey to take care of at his convenience. I dusted, vacuumed (carpet, tile, and even the blinds!), washed outside windows, and mopped the floor. I let go of a family home evening chart, made of wood, that I had never really liked the look of, but it had been serving a purpose. I decided that it was more important to enjoy looking at my mantle than to hold onto something that I didn't like, even though it was useful.
In this process, I am learning things about myself and about my home. This house was not my first choice to live in, and I have used that so often as an excuse to stay away from it. I have learned that I like being home, even in a home I don't love, when it is clean and tidy. It was the mess and the clutter that I avoided.
The lesson that I still need to learn is that no matter what I do, my home (and life) will still get messy. The website I am using said this:

"Quite honestly, I don't have solutions for this problem, because the problem is, we live with imperfect people. Some personalities and temperaments endure disorganization more than others. And certain ages tolerate--even enjoy--messes more than others."
With everything nice and clean, I found myself following a two year old around picking up dropped popcorn crumbs. And I really, really tried not to yell at the eleven year old peeling a cutie over my clean floor. But I do have great satisfaction in knowing that the floor is clean, at least for today.





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