The attempts to tidy, continue, or should I say the feeble attempts to tidy are semi-ongoing. The problem is – well, the two problems are, I have too much stuff, and I am too sentimentally attached to very minor and valueless items. I try to be ruthless but it’s tricky – and disheartening.
One thing I am very good at is distraction techniques. I spent a lot of time yesterday, organising the spice drawer in the kitchen. I was so proud of myself because I ruthlessly looked at sell-by dates and threw out old half-empty jars of various things – well, mostly I did, I organised the jars in containers in alphabetical order, I lined the drawers (having cleaned them thoroughly) with old newspaper (and did not stop to read the old newspapers which had previously been there!) and finally threw out most of the old recipes I’d pulled out of magazines or were on supermarket cards.
I didn’t stop there – I tackled the drawer beneath the spice drawer which is home to large kitchen items such as the deep fat fryer. I took everything out, cleaned, relined, cleaned the items, put some to go to be recycled, and others back in the clean drawer. Of all the things I could have done to improve the kitchen situation, this was probably the most pointless – although yes, indeed, those two drawers are clean and tidy and only contain things we need/use. What about the cupboards full of crockery and equipment> What abput the drawers I never open because I no longer use/need the tools and implements within? What about the cooker – which does need a complete and thorough clean, is far to big for us, doesn’t work completely and needs to be taken out and replaced with something smaller and more appropriate? Maybe I will tackle them tomorrow… although it’s far more likely I will be distracted by something else.
We have more books than a fair sized bookshop, they should be organised, sorted, some (the majority) re-homed, sold or donated. I have bags, files and boxes full of scribblings, I have hundreds of photos of views I don’t remember or even recognise, people I don’t know, places I’ve never been because, guess what? They aren’t even my photos but my aunty’s and my in-laws’!
I plod on, despite being disheartened, and wish I had a tidying fairy who would descend and make order out of my jumble!
Lois Elsden 