A CLEAN SWEEP . . .

I FINALLY have all my Christmas 'stuff' put away completely . . . FINALLY . . .

I love decorating and having little touches of cheerful holidayishness (LOL . . . is that even a word?) all around . . . It just makes everything seem more special and festive to me . . . but every year it catches me off guard at how quickly 'holiday cheer' turns into annoying CLUTTER the minute Christmas is over. Honestly . . . overnight, my house just seems cluttered and messy, where the day before the same stuff was delightful . . . and then I just want it GONE . . .

Usually I have things taken down and mostly put away by New Years . . . or shortly thereafter. This year was busier, and it just didn't finish happening until yesterday . . . and I am enjoying how clean and fresh my house seems now.

For such a long time, it seems like all my best efforts were taken by school . . . and my life revolved around semesters and projects and deadlines . . . So for this six week mini semester (when I am only working and not taking any classes) I have set some goals for deep cleaning and dejunking my house.

Yeah, the urge to endulge in Spring Cleaning hits every year about this time, but this is different. I don't just want my house CLEAN (something which sadly has been rather hit and miss when school was my priority) . . . I also want closets organized and dejunked, and I want to go through EVERYTHING and throw things away and simplify what we have, what we own . . .

I have been, so far -- (knock on wood) -- really making significant progress, and thoroughly enjoying the process . . . I made a list that broke all the major tasks down into manageable, bite-sized pieces and have been steadily checking things off ever since . . . No, it wont be all done by tomorrow . . . but it WILL get done . . . and I am excited about the progress I am making . . .