Monday, May 31, 2010

Therapeutic Cleaning

A lot of you have been to my home and know that it is a very small condo, about 950 square feet to be exact. And I have lived in this little space for 23 years. You accumulate things over time. I don't know if I accumulate more things than other people. Maybe.
So that front room of mine houses an awful lot of stuff. If I lived in a bigger space, I don't think it would be a big a deal. But I go through and purge stuff pretty regularly. It's interesting to me, how something I think I should keep at one point in time, I am fine with getting rid of at a later date.
So we went on a home tour recently. Of course, all of these homes were very clean and nicely done. It made me feel even more cluttered. I had been having thoughts for a while that I wanted to clean out the area where my washer and dryer are. I had dumped things on top of them and never seemed to get back to really do anything with them.
So today, even though I didn't really have much sleep, I decided to tackle it.
So one of the first things I did was break my really nice white Williams and Sonoma bowl. I really liked it and was upset that I broke it. But it was really big and now I don't have to figure out where I am going to store it. (It is also the third thing I have broken in the last 4 days. I hope I'm done.)
I got rid of:
  • a cute retro juicer that looks like a black and white puppy with a sombrero.
  • A really nice large glass Christmas platter. I just couldn't keep storing something that I only used once or twice a year.
  • a bunch of bug spray that I haven't used.
  • carpet cleaning solution. I haven't had carpet in a year.
  • a fondue set. I think I have two others somewhere else.
  • a plastic tub.

I moved and reorganized:

  • several empty plant pots and saucers.
  • a really nice set of colored drawing pencils.
  • my art supplies
  • 2 big plastic bowls that won't fit anywhere else.
  • the attachments to my vacuum cleaner that I don't use very often.
  • my grain mill, waffle maker, crepe maker, mandolin, spice grinder, spare place mats, ice cream maker.
  • A bunch of legal size envelopes.
  • some treat boxes and bags to put goodies in for gifts.

So it looks nice now. I washed off my washer and dryer. I have basket on top of my washer with all my washing and ironing supplies. It looks so much nicer to me.

So where do the rest of you keep all this stuff? I still need to work on the rest of the room and it will never look like those homes we toured, I just don't have anyplace to put it really away.

One small step for sanity.

4 comments:

Cynthia said...

That type of cleaning really is therapeutic. Are you breaking things because you are sleep deprived? I worry about you and your recent lack of sleep. Crazy work schedule you keep.
Anyway - where do you get a spice grinder? I need one.
I sometimes wonder how many kitchen appliances I really need to keep. We do have waffles very regularly, but crepes? Then the other day, Melanie had a bunch of friends over and they were making crepes. Fun.

Suzanne Barker said...

I took a class on crepes and then wanted the maker. I've only used it once so far, but it is fun. I hope to use it again.
The spice grinder, is really a coffee mill. It works great!

JanetinMN said...

I'm afraid my "stuff" is just kind of all over my house... 6 kids and living here 14 years... it's pretty cluttered. Now that there are only 2 kids left I'm starting to declutter - but it's hard!

Anonymous said...

I still just make creps from a small pan! Anyway, I should clean out more too since I'm getting overloaded w/ my dad's stuff!