Clean Sweep

My house is a total disaster.

About six months ago, I almost had everything in order. The place wasn't perfect, but except for some actual remodelling that needs to be done and carpet that needs to be replaced, the end was in sight. I had gotten rid of a lot of stuff, and I knew where everything else was.

And then life happened, and the rest of that was put on hold while I tried to deal with a personal tragedy.

And then after that, we went out of town, a lot. My husband has to make a lot of short trips here and there, and he wants me to go with him most of the time. And, unless there's a really good reason to stay home, I go with him.

And on the days that we are not out of town, we somehow manage to forget to do the dishes before we set out again, not do enough laundry, not put away the non-perishables from the grocery store, not find a proper place to put the Christmas presents we've purchased, etc....

So now the place looks worse than it did before I started cleaning.

My husband is a fan of a cable show called Clean Sweep, where someone takes everything out of your house, and you separate all of the stuff into groups of things you want to keep, things that you want to donate to someone else, and things that just need to be thrown away. And then you're not allowed to take anything you want to keep back into the house until you have a proper place for it.

So my husband is always wanting to do this, but he rarely actually sets aside time to put such a thing into practice. But he's decided we need to at least do something like that, maybe just do one room at a time. And he's set aside time to get started on it. He would like to do a room tomorrow.

Of course, it will not get done tomorrow.

Tonight will be the first freeze of the year, and I really can't see either of us standing out in the cold front yard trying to decide what we really want to keep, when all we really want to do is stay inside and keep warm.

It was a nice thought, and I'm glad he really wants to help this time, but I think that the spring cleaning is actually going to have to wait for spring.