A month for a month

The ratio being a reference to a full month of cleaning to which my system responded with a full month of resting.

Very reasonable and not bad for a woman in her second trimester, right?

I have been accused of being on a perpetual quest to clean and organise my things and this is, sadly, not very far from the truth. I am a pack rat. Nothing to be proud of, but I'm not about to lie about or hide it either. You've seen me have my moments but believe me when I say that those moments come at the expense of at least two to three days worth of work that are easily undone in just as long a time.

I'm not entirely sure why or how that happens, to be honest. All I know is that, especially with my little Beanie Bear coming, I have to get off my bum and do something about this terrible habit.

I have very few "before" photos, mainly because I didn't even think I'd be blogging this sort of thing at all. But now that I'm back to regular blogging, I thought it might be nice to record the journey and see how much of a change I've made to our family's space.

These were my projects in the month I was out:

• Craft materials reorganization
• Turn closet into a respectable-looking closet
• Make bedding easier to manage

It sounds less daunting than it actually was but imagine doing all those while doing the laundry, planning meals, taking care of sick pets, and completing sewing projects! With me being newly-minted into this lifestyle, believe me, I am very, very proud of myself for completing those three tasks in a month.

I'm not showing the photos off for these three projects now and all in one go. That would be too much for one entry, I think.

Let's start, first, with how I got there.

I mentioned before that I am a pack rat. It's a very nasty hoarder habit that most likely came from the fact that I love keeping things that remind me of other things: life events, people, places, you name it. I've kept the most random items from scraps of paper to clothes.

So this was my first hurdle: getting rid of junk.And by "junk" I mean anything from trash to excess items.

Piles and piles of paper went into recycling or shredding, as applicable. Various containers were sent to the laundry area to get scrubbed down. Magazines were boxed up as were more important documents so that I could concentrate first on getting rid of what was unnecessary. Still others went to boxes labelled for "disposal"--donations to charity, things my mum could use at her office, and a few that I contacted a high school teacher friend for because they were art materials that were being sadly neglected and wouldn't be used for a good long time. For the latter I figured I may as well just purchase new crayons and oil pastels should I wish to pursue them again because right now, non-digital and non-photographic art is still on the back burner.

I'd say that this segregation and disposal took up the most of my time. It was a wrench to part with some things, it was easy to part with others, and some, to take the edge off parting with them particularly the clothes, I quickly folded and stuffed into a donation box if I'd not worn it for more than a year, whatever the condition of the item was and no matter how much I may still like it even if it no longer fit me.

Next was the cleaning. Some might argue, "You're pregnant! That's too much work!" and I'm just, "Meh, it's my exercise." I slept when I wanted, stopped when I felt like it, but it made me feel good and it was very therapeutic for me to see months, even years of caked up dirt washing down the drain.

The result? Compact and decent storage for my art and scrapbook materials, a closet that can actually breathe, and bedding that I can easily pull out with my eyes closed. Photos of each project next week so stay tuned! ^_^