Subduing the Mess

Since the beginning of the semester I have let my bedroom become a disaster area. I was feeling pretty bad about it last night and made the comment that it would probably have to stay that way until after Haiti. Well, I'm not sure what got into me (perhaps a bit of procrastination from school work), but my 30 minute effort to put away clean laundry and collect dirty clothes did not end after 30 minutes. I guess I spent about 4 hours going through piles, cleaning out the under sink area and throwing a way a LOT of half-used/unused/OLD health & beauty products. Organized the cabinet and drawers! I went through all my meds and threw away all expired meds (seeing if there was anything useful to take to Haiti). I cleaned off my desk and collected about 2 dozen old AA batteries to recycle. When I found something applicable to take to Haiti (camera battery recharger, combination lock, etc.) I just put it in a bag and I'll end up sorting through that stuff in the next couple weeks as I begin to pack and make shopping lists. 

I walk into my room and there is almost next to nothing on my floor but furniture and back of winter clothing. It's wonderful! I haven't vacuumed yet, but think I will do that this evening before bed. Life is so much better when there aren't piles of stuff laying around. And now I have significantly reduced my "risk for fall" during my early morning stagger to the bathroom. haha.

Hopefully I can keep things moderately managed over the coming weeks so that packing for Haiti won't be so complicated. My problem is that while I don't mind doing laundry, I HATE putting clean laundry away and would rather just grab clean clothes out of my laundry baskets. Ack. So this afternoon, while studying, I will cycle a few loads of laundry, including sweaters that I need to wash before putting away for the summer. 

Now that I'm not dealing with clinical stuff 3 days a week, I *should* actually be able to spend a hour or so each week keeping the household subdued. We'll see how it goes. But for now... my bedroom is a bit less cluttered and thus restful. Isn't there a saying that your environment is a reflection of the state of your soul? Cluttered & messy = stressed and busy!

Now downstairs is another thing. Thankfully school stuff is condensed to the den and the dining room. Haiti stuff in the living room...and the rest of life (bills, mail, misc) ends up on the kitchen table. It's not bad, probably a 20 minute pick up job...but school is not over and the space is functional and not stressing me out. It's funny, when I'm looking to procrastinate, I LOVE filling/emptying the dishwasher or taking out trash. Which I guess is a GOOD thing...AND I don't feel so guilty about procrastinating.

Well, I'm hungry and tired, so I'm going to go eat and take a quick nap before jumping on my books. Enough procrastination today. Perhaps while waiting for lunch to heat-up I'll do a quick de-clutter of the kitchen table. Hmm?

Cheers.