Always Doing the Laundry

Out with the old and in with the new

Isn’t it wonderful when you have a clear out at home?  It’s so nice to open a cupboard and see the virtually empty space with only the necessary items in situ, or to look across at tidy, uncluttered shelves?  Spring is all about tidying up and clearing out the winter mess in preparation for the summer.  We do it with ourselves too.  Going on a diet after Christmas and joining a gym is virtually the same thing as sorting out our homes.

However, like the New Year fitness resolutions, spring cleaning can also be tricky.  I have written before about how difficult it is to throw things away.  Sometimes more things get put back than thrown out.  This year I had an early spring clean forced on me as I was having work done in the house in January and therefore needed to “sort things out” (as Absent Husband put it more than once).  This deadline meant I had to be ruthless.

So I started with a large cupboard in our family room.  This held years of puzzles, board games and various assortments of video and DVDs.  Yes, videos.  I looked longingly at each one, mainly great Disney films, and wondered where the time had gone.  I pulled out boxes of wonderful Duplo (Lego for little ones) and found myself immersed in building a secret garden scene complete with animals, just like the one my daughter used to create.  And then suddenly I noticed the time and realised I been doing it for over an hour.  Clearing out does that to you.  You find something from the past and all the memories come flooding back.

But the clear out had to be done quickly – I had a buyer coming to collect the oak cupboard and new built in furniture being installed all later that week.  So the Duplo and the videos were hastily dealt with, videos to the tip (nobody has a video player anymore) and the Duplo consigned to a box in the loft informally known as “the grandchildren box”. 

I took several cartons of games and puzzles all in good condition to a local charity shop and they were, as ever, extremely grateful to receive them.  As I looked around the shop, I was struck by how many things like mine were in it and I wondered how they manage to sell all those things.

The job was done and I can now look across at my beautifully tidy shelves safe in the knowledge that I won’t have to do anymore clearing out.  Well not in that room anyway.  And if I feel the inclination to design a secret garden again, well, I know where the Lego is kept.