Clean Sweep

Maybe it is due to my wee bit of indulgence at the yarn sale, maybe it is Spring around the corner, but I have got the urge to purge-EVERYTHING. I am feeling stifled by my "stuff". How did we get so much stuff? Is it just the things of Life With Kids that accumulate or am I a terrible pack rat? Is it that the more people in one house the more stuff, or am I a terrible housekeeper? Am I messy, dirty, disorganized, irresponsible, unkempt, a menace to society, AN ENEMY TO SMALL CHILDREN AND KITTENS?! Ok, like I said, the "stuff" is getting to me. I daydream about the folks from that show "Clean Sweep" coming to my house-it is not that my house is as bad as most of the rooms I've seen on the show, it is just that I want someone else to re-decorate and re-do my house for me-and pay for it, too. Part of the problem is that we've lived here in this house for just under 2 years and for a good bit of that time, I was pretty sick. The first fall we lived here I was pregnant and when I am pregnant, I get extremely sick-a condition known as Hyperemesis Gravidarum. So, I was sick for part of the Fall, but then I miscarried and that had it's own complications...and then it was Winter and who really wants to Spring Clean in the Winter, right?? However, that February (a year ago) I was pregnant again, this time successfully, with Thing 3 and I thought I was sick in the Fall!! This time was completely awful-throwing up, hospitalization, IV fluids, blah blah blah for months and by the time I was functional again, school was out and the Summer was in full swing and the stuff accumulated some more. We did make a dent in cleaning this Summer but by the end I was hippo-sized and not much up to cleaning out a whole lot. Then this past Fall-Voila! Thing 3 arrived and needless to say, not so much in the cleaning out (or sleeping or showering or exercising or uttering intelligible sentences...) has occurred. All this to say, now that I feel a little bit back to normalish (not so sure I've ever really been classified as normal per se....), I WANT THE STUFF GONE!! So I've decided over the next 2 weeks to do one room a day-clean it up and clean it out. That way, it will be done and ready to go out for Spring Clean Up, a lovely perk of our great Town of Blacksburg. I calculated, by combining some things like linen closets and bathrooms, that we have 8 rooms to get cleaned up and out so I thought 2 weeks to be a realistic timetable with the Things' "Hey Mommy!"s every 10 seconds. It should be an interesting 2 weeks-who knows what I'll uncover (did they ever really find Jimmy Hoffa?...) I'm oddly excited about this endeavor and celebrated by going out to Target and buying brand new trash bags and disinfectant wipes-do I know how to live it up or WHAT?! I've gathered my new supplies and I'm armed with this book (which I already had-I did not go out and buy it just for this-wait, I'm not sure that's helping me seem more "normal"-it was a gift, ok? Ok, but I really do love weird cleaning and stain removal tips-I have issues, move on...) and I'm ready to beat back the clutter!! I do think that a big part of my Purge 2007 will be a re-organization of my Yarn Friends that are in baskets all over the house. If I find any that are in need of a new home, I'll put them on here for any folks who are interested!
I'll try to get out from under the piles long enough to post now and again-wish me luck and feel free to come by and adopt a homeless dustbunny or 2! (I wonder if I can spin those into some sort of exotic yarn...dustbunny sweater anyone?)