Idea #50: Clean house.

Idea #50 in this book is to write about emptying your closets and letting things go, things that you've held on to a year (or more) too long. That idea, combined with watching five episodes of Clean Sweep this weekend, inspired the following activities and subsequent post.

First, I attacked the closet. I've been struggling with the balance between losing more weight than I'd planned to, and the concept that my new job is stressful enough and I've laid off the gym enough that I just might gain all that weight back in the next six months. (I don't hope to, for many many reasons, the main one being that I'm in a wedding this July and would like to have a nice figure to show off whatever strappy dress and bikini I end up wearing in hot, humid Puerto Rico. But another part of me really just doesn't care.)

Anyway, I haven't wanted to get rid of any clothes until today. Today, anything I haven't worn in the last year, I'm not likely to wear this year (skinny or not), so it went into the Salvation Army bag. I freed up about 20 hangers just on that purge. (I also kept three pairs of jeans and four shirts that no longer fit - but put them in a storage box to save closet space - in case I do gain weight again and need some emergency clothing. A girl's gotta plan.)

I keep my shoes in a verticle sweater hanger, which started out as an actual place to house sweaters before I grew up a little bit and bought a real dresser to house the aforementioned sweaters. Yesterday several of the slots housed several pairs of shoes, and there were five shoe boxes underneath also housing shoes. Now there are just a few slots housing several pairs of shoes and no shoe boxes underneath. (I love shoes. I consider this progress. Work with me here.)

And finally, the bookcase. Yesterday, the books I hadn't yet read were interspersed with the books I had read, and just looking at the bookcase before bedtime always made me way too tired to bother with picking one out. Now, all the books I haven't read are neatly organized on the top shelf:



All the books I have read (and will likely read again someday) are organized in horizontal ~ and~ verticle stacks on the bookshelves, creating a nice design element to the room:



And all the books I have no intention of reading or finishing are in the Salvation Army pile; all the phone books and old AAA guides that I will never refer to are in the recycling pile; the state and state park maps are in my car; and the pocket references are on my desk.

I understand how other peoples' homes get disorganized. It's easy to just pile junk in a room or a closet and not deal with them, ever. When I was in elementary school my desk was always a mess and spring cleaning with Mom was the dreaded event of the year.

Now, the idea of disorganization, or things piling up without dealing with them, feels so oppressing to me. I'm not sure if it's due to how many times I've moved in the last five years (the less stuff you have, the quicker the move), or if it's due to my immediate disgust when I pick up a book and see the clean space on the dresser where the dust has collected around it, or if it's because of my anti-capitalist attitude that makes me shun "stuff as happiness"...

Actually, I don't really care what it's about. It's me. And it feels good.