It is harvest season for me and I am reaping what I have been sowing......

I guess you could say this is punishment for being a slob.  Or it could be karma payback for being a clutterbug.  It could also just be the realization that I need to be a little organized and simplify my life.

I like things.  I am more comfortable with many of my things around me.  I have always been a collector of stuff.  Rudy fussed with me as he got older.  He wanted to see or be surrounded by lessor amounts of the stuff.  (He liked his stuff, too, but it remained in the garage and basement)  I am guessing that part of the grief I have been working through is being satisfied by collecting my stuff.  I need to work on that, too.

I have begun the task of doing a deep cleaning.  I am going through my house a part at a time and TRYING to purge some of the stuff I really no longer need and putting things into spots if I deem them worthy of holding on to.

I started in the bedroom.  With all of the trips and bringing home clothing from the Maryland house last winter, I have not had a great deal of room to wander around.  The bedroom does not have a great deal of space to begin with, so having 'stuff' cluttering up the floors, it was difficult to walk all the way around the bed.  I also had suitcases out for the adventures I have been going on.

So, that has all been going away.  I can actually walk all around the bed and have most of the stuff around the room in their proper places.  Just a few things left to make decisions about and all that is left is to dust and vacuum.

Today, I tackled the kitchen counters.  I have gotten really bad about allowing dishes to pile up in the sink.  I also had mounds of non-kitchen stuff on the counter-top so that I could really not prepare food of any kind.  So I washed all of the dishes and pans, once dried, they were put away.  I went through the pantry and got rid of things that were best used by 2012 and earlier.  I am pleased to say that I have my little area of counter space free once again and was even able to make meatloaf for dinner tonight without having a landslide of other stuff to deal with.  I might actually enjoy cooking again!!!  And the smells coming from the kitchen are delightful.

I still have more to do in the kitchen, but I am treating the house like an elephant.  Do you know the best way to eat an elephant??  One small bite at a time.  I figure if I tackle a small section of a room, within no time, I will have the house completely under control.  That is my goal.  It may be a while as I may be interrupted in December with my knee replacement surgery, but if I keep at it on the days going up to the surgery, I should have a pretty good handle on it.

Wish me luck!!