The Week After

SO, I turned in my book last week, and managed to take a couple of days off. A couple of days, you might ask? Why not a week? Or two? Or better yet, a month? Because I'm a dumbass and overscheduled myself for the first half of 2010. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not looking for sympathy, but I do have two projects that are due in a short amount of time, so to be honest, I'll be even busier through the next three months than I've been the past three months.

Because of deadlines, I've been horribly lax in my spring cleaning efforts the last two years. So on Saturday, something...compelled me to clean my closet and dresser drawers. I purged and organized and although I hated doing it, I love the end result. I can find things. I look in the closet and see tangible results.

Tangible results. That doesn't always happen when I'm writing. I can spend months on a book and feel like I'm spinning my wheels. Yes, I end up with a finished book, but it's not something that's immediately visible. Like a clean closet. Now I'm looking at other things that "should" be done--things I really hate to do, things that also have tangible results. Like spring yard clean up. Ugh. You should see the amount of pine cones, pine needles and turkey shit in my yard. Double Ugh. I know I should hire a yard clean up crew, but I'm unconvinced that we're out of danger for snow storms, and usually spring snow storms leave twice as much yard waste/debris in their wake. So...I'll wait. Yard work is one thing neither Mr. LGA nor I enjoy. I think we'd rather re-roof the house than pick up a freakin' rake--and no, we're not lazy, you rake a thousand bags of leaves (100 bags every year for 10 years) and clear half an acre of six foot high Canadian thistle, and haul 3 - two ton flatbed truckloads to the dump and see how much *you* "love" puttering in the yard.

Anyone else started spring cleaning? Is it a ritual for you? Or hit and miss?

Comments

[Charlene Teglia]

I try to organize things spring and fall, go through and get rid of outgrown/worn out clothes, weed out the books and donate to the library, generally keep stuff from over-accumulating. I've already started the fall yardwork, OMG the leaves. : O

[Patti Abbott]

It was such a big thing in my childhood--until my Mother got a job. I took that as permission to dispense with it forevermore. The cleanest houses are those of the most boring people-or those with a maid.

[Becky Hutchison]

I want a maid. I grew up in a home that was spotless, and I want mine to be that way too. Only I hate to clean house. And you can't have one without the other. Bummer!

However, two Fridays ago I did deep clean my 19 yr old son's room (which hadn't been done in at least three years). He had piles of old and outgrown clothes all over the place. I don't see how he even walked into his room. It felt strange, but really good, to dust and vacuum his room so clean, that my husband said it was "amazing" to see it that way.

I want to clean our master bedroom that way too. That's why I want a maid.

[Karen Olson]

I had a cleaning woman once. Sylvia was wonderful. She even bought my books. But when I started working part time I couldn't justify Sylvia, so we let her go. Saddest day ever.

Every once in a while I just get sick of a messy closet or two and tackle them. It doesn't matter what time of year it is.

[AlisonGaylin]

Congrats on finishing!! We have a housekeeper come in every other Friday. She's great, and with two shedding animals and a fairly big house, a necessity. I'm with Karen -- though I'm very, sadly behind on the messy closet-tackling these days.

[Sabine]

Yeah, we did the cleaning today and last week in the garden cauze the weather was warm and nice over here so the winter is gone and the flowers start blooming. Then two days ago I cleaned my windows just for fun which is really unlike me because I really hate that. But not this time, I liked doing it anyway. So now the sun is shining thru and yeah, it's fine and I'm happy I've done it.