Cleaning up, one step at a time

In order for things to get better, they have to get worse first.

The thought just came to mind while I was thinking about the way I clean. Afterwards, I realized that it could have a larger meaning.

Anyway, things were definitely in a bad way when I went upstairs to bed and noticed the mess I had made today in my efforts to de-clutter.

I procrastinate about cleaning, then I eye a project, drop everything else and attack it wholeheartedly. But I have to do it in steps, hence the mess.

There are all sorts of piles around the house that I need to address. Most of them belong to a wonderful kid who can self-identify. Pssst. You know who you are. I could wait around until school vacation or I could do it myself. I decided to do it myself.

Today I deconstructed several piles. I first removed the throw-away stuff, put it in a bag and took it to the garage. That was the easy part. The rest involved separating into give-away, stuff to be placed in a child's room and stuff to be stored in a place more appropriate than on a chair or on the floor.

This is more difficult. I put some things onto kids' beds, mostly laundry that had stayed on a chair or keepsakes that had gotten buried. I grew tired of the process when I got to the point of finding better storage places, plus I'm not quite sure where that is. So at the end of the day there are now clusters of stuff around, even more uncharmingly eye-attracting than before.

This is where I came up with my things getting worse before they get better realization.

Tomorrow is another day.