In the pursuit of cleanliness

 

So now that I am no longer acting in a Nanny capacity, I am currently looking for work.  A task that sounds easier than it is.  At first I was very excited at the prospect of rejoining the public work force.  But over a month later having only one call back out of about 70 applications, I’m feeling a little discouraged.  So today I’ve devoted to cleaning my room and throwing away things that I REALLY don’t need or use anymore.

My bedroom consists of 4 main areas: Entertainment Center, Bed & night stands, closet….and the all feared…..DESK.

Each area is not without its own level of difficulty since the last several months were spent cleaning the house up after the kids rather than keeping on top of my own cleaning.  Let’s face it…after a long day of cleaning up after kids, is anyone REALLY going to  spend extra time doing more cleaning?  HELL NO!  You want to relax after 12 hours of cleaning.  So that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for the last 4 months. 

Now that the termite treatment is finally done successfully (the first treatment didn’t work because the wind blew the tent off the house), I’m finally getting around to doing the cleaning and organizing that I should have been keeping up with.  I started this morning at about 10.  It’s 1PM now and I’m taking a little break about half way through..

Let me paint a simple picture of how things looked before I got started…

The entertainment  center consists of a rolling cart (but made of solid wood, quite sturdy).  On top of this rolling cart “thingy”, I have a wooden shoe rack (also quite sturdy) stacked  so that there are four shelves and on top of that is my flat screen tv.  Above the tv is a shelf holding the audio receiver.  The shoe rack shelves hold my cable box, tivo and blu ray player, The shelves on the rolling cart contained random junk that I couldn’t find a place for, so they became the catch-all for items without a home.  To the left of the rolling cart is my Linux computer which is currently not working. (requires some basic configuring due to a power outage and subsequent battery failure).  To the left of the computer is my super comfy rocking chair stacked with about 6 pairs of jeans, 1 pair of slacks, 3 dress shirts, a hand full of ties, a belt and a bundt pan.  Yes, that’s right, a bundt pan.  All of my pots and pans are in storage, but I will take single items out if I need them for something,  This was the case with the bundt pan.  Rather than putting it back in its box in the closet, it went on the chair.  The second catch-all for items without a home.  On the floor in front of the chair was my big double layered nylafume bag protecting medicine cabinet items from the fumigation chemicals….I’ve still not unpacked it.

My bed is relatively clean (for the time being) because I do, after all, sleep in it every night.  My nightstand is packed full of old magazines that I haven’t read in a long time, cell phone chargers that aren’t even compatible with my current  phone as well as a few random items.  The bookshelf on the other side of my bed is full of stuff, miscellaneous papers and magazines, scentsy bars that are randomly strewn about with no order whatsoever.  Next to the bookshelf is the door…there’s nothing in the doorway.  On the floor on the next wall is a bunch of stuff that I haven’t yet found a home for.  Board games, gifts from a Chicago friend (there are lots of them, he’s a very nice man) 2 computer monitors and empty boxes of things I’ve purchased but haven’t yet thrown away the packaging.

The closet…it’s a small walk-in closet.  Inside I keep my dresser, a spare desk from ikea, a small end table and my 3 drawer rubbermaid container with all my computer cables,  power cords, etc.  Now you can’t even walk into the damn room because I so frequently toss things in there onto the floor to quickly get them out of direct view. Usually because the housekeeper was coming and I wanted my bedroom to appear nice.  There were pillows, shoes, various computer cables, 2 DVD players, a large desk fan, a window fan, the rest of my shoes, a sewing machine, a bowling ball and all of my empty luggage containers.

Finally my desk…. I spend the most of my spare time (when I’m not sleeping) at my desk, so it stands to reason that it would be packed full of all kinds of junk.  Just to name a few things: dvd’s and blu-ray discs that I haven’t put back on the shelf, empty soda cans, a soda cup from wendy’s (also empty) my credit report, a baseball cap, a Father’s Day card for dad, vitamins, a ped-egg, deodorant and MANY MANY more random items.  This will by far be the worst project of the day.

As of now, 1:08pm, I have cleaned the corner chair, night stand and floor between the tv and bed.  The closet is now completely clear of junk and I’ve gone through all my clothes and thrown away any and all clothes that I don’t want/need anymore.  You can walk in there quite easily and I’m loving it.  Any stuff that wasn’t to be thrown away or needed to be replaced into its appropriate spot has been put onto my bed.  This way I HAVE to do it if I have any desire to go to bed tonight.  The bed is mostly cleared off by now, which is a good thing since more things will be going there when I start on the desk.  The floor with all the monitors and boxes is mostly cleared.  I still have to find places for some of the items, but so far it’s starting to look really good. 

I have at least another 3 hours of work ahead of me, in addition to doing all the laundry that needs to be done today.  So we’ll see how things turn out.  But so far I’m extremely happy that my room is starting to resemble something that’s somewhat neat and organized.