The Industrious Snow Day

Yesterday, we had the day off for the sort of snowstorm that was perfect because of its timing.  This storm brought snow, ice, and sleet but not in abundance and temperatures slipped back over freezing overnight so that today’s morning’s drive won’t be horrible.  A Tuesday holiday makes for a shorter week and I was determined to both get things done and enjoy my day off.  Over morning coffee, I made a to-do list and then got after it.  I started a load of laundry and did some schoolwork.  I  completed my taxes (and shook my fist at Donald Trump, whose tax cut didn’t help me a bit).  Then I took a break, made a cup of tea, and settled in with the cats to read my book for a bit.

I baked some shortbread and made a few treat packets to give away.

I worked on the paper craft flowers that will be my March front door wreath and now I am ready to assemble the wreath.

I took after my nightstand and the tiny drawer therein, which has become completely crammed over the years.  First, I emptied the drawer onto a towel on my bed and marveled at the amount of book marks, paper, pens, and safety pins one woman can toss in a drawer.  Below is a picture of the empty drawer.

And here is the heap I had stuffed in it.

As the heap thinned, I found some treasures.  These pictures of two year old JT were charming.

I also found my grandfather’s pocket tape measure.  I suspected it was in the drawer and finding it was a treat.

After throwing out the trash, I sorted out the treasures that remained, decided which ones spark joy (I know that idea sounds silly, but it really works), and then neatly returned those items to the nightstand and the drawer..

Like all of the other Marie Kondo-inspired clean-ups I’ve made, this one is lovely because it will make my daily life nicer.  

I wrapped up the day by making a pot of red lentil soup which was warm and spicy; a perfect bowl for a cold day.  This recipe is a keeper, both because it’s easy to make and because it’s delicious.

It was nice to have some time to catch up and relax in equal measure.  This morning, I head to school refreshed and with a much shorter to-do list.  That’s good news!

Going All Marie Kondo Up in Here

Like everyone else, I watched the Marie Kondo episodes on Netflix, consoled myself that my mess wasn’t that bad, and then and promptly got to work on said messes.  I like things tidy but I’m prone to letting little messes pile up.  When the clean up spirit strikes me, I’m more prone to a “burn it down” approach than a “spark joy” approach.  As I sort through things that I never should have kept around, I grow more and more horrified and then it all goes in a trash bag.  This is not always a good idea and so the Kondo method of being mindful about the items in my house appealed to me.  It also gave me permission to organize my things without judging myself.  And on that basis, T and I got to work.  There are no before pictures because they were too horrifying, so all we’ve got are after pictures.  But it’s quite an after, if I do say so myself.  The linen closet is pleasing every time we open the door, which we sometimes do just to be pleased with how it looks.

The cloth napkin drawer is now lovely and useful.

The kitchen towel and dishrag drawer got a clean-out and tidy-up.

Though neither are on Marie Kondo’s radar on her Netflix episodes, the fridge and freezer got a much-needed massive clean-out and tidying as well.  Shout out here to my sister, whose fridge is always this fucking clean.

The nice thing about completing these chores is that they add pleasure to daily life, reducing the amount of time I spend pawing around like a raccoon in a dumpster looking for the item I need (and loathing myself for being unable to locate it).

That sparks joy!

Spring Cleaning

When I was a teenager, I discovered that when my sister and I were away from home, my mother would clean in our absence.  For years, I thought this was some sort of strange psychological condition driven by the fact that my mother loves a clean house.  Then I had a child and the same impulse seized me.  I clean while JT is away and then sit back to reap the rewards of my tidy home, which stays tidy because of the child’s absence.

When Spring Break first began, I ordered JT to clean his room before he left for Florida or I would do it for him and bill him for my time.  He didn't tidy up before he left (rather the reverse, actually) so I undertook the threatened task.  I found a box of unopened granola bars, a plastic bag with two aged tangerines and a rotten banana skin, assorted sports jugs with fetid water inside them, and a vast collection of previously read Sports Illustrated and ESPN magazines.  They have been removed and the floors cleaned.  Now visitors to his room (i.e., me, dropping off his clean laundry) may enter without fear of infestation.  A side effect of the cleaning frenzy is that I can now open both of his closet doors.

JT returns today and will likely be annoyed that I cleaned his room.  I will respond with two words: “rotten food.”  He’ll forgive or he won’t but I‘m over it already.  No doubt his crap will shortly be all over the house.  But until then, the print-free windows and glass, tidy bathrooms, and organized closets are lovely to behold.  

Life List #27: Table in the Study

 There is a room located just beyond French doors in the corner of my living room that we call the study because it has bookcases and was originally intended to have a desk with the computer on it.  But JT and I are laptop junkies who prefer a wireless life.  And the room was the only place in the house with space to house the elliptical (and therefore preserve my tenuous sanity).  So instead of being an actual study, where we would sit in a wooden desk chair while reading the great works, it's just the room we call the study.

Last summer, during my August cleaning frenzy, I organized the book shelves.  That has been a most happy development.  But the desk in here was stacked with an old desktop computer and printer, the phone, cable, and computer cords plus a whole bunch of other things which had no natural home.  Each winter, I would rescue a few outdoor plants and wedge them into the room to winter over.  And this unsightly, dusty mess was the view for my daily workout. 

Over the spring, as I looked over the desk and out the windows at my blooming lilac tree, I started to think about putting the desk surface to use as a place for plants to winter over and cats to sun.  A pail for pens, the phone, and the wireless router could stay but the rest of the desk would be a much neater (and nicer) host for actual things that I enjoy looking at.  I thought about this often, but there was no progress toward actually getting the done.  Finally, last week I was inspired to take action.  The job was nearly done before I thought to take any photos so you'll just have to trust me when I say that the table was a slattern's dream.  Because all you get to see is this much-improved view:

I've got a tidy, organized table (with a new wireless router…thanks for the assistance, C).  It's now ready for some happy plants (that would be life list item number 28) and cats to come and hang out.   And this is another job checked off on my life list.  I am a life list cleaning machine, people.