cleaning – marginalia and such

the view from Sunday: mugs, books, and kitties!

Still dealing with the mites, but the plague appears to be under control *fingers crossed* so life is starting to settle into something of a rhythm again. With all the spraying and cleaning, I decided to re-evaluate my mug collection and concluded that, rather than ridding myself of the excess, I should rid myself of all the other stuff cluttering my pantry. Result: happy mugs! I did get rid of a few, mostly the ones that were too thin or fussy to handle (no joy when you get burned by hot contents), but the rest make me happy, so they stay until the day they don’t.

photo P1030098_zpseouubvrf.jpg — a few were in the wash, but you get the idea

Of course, having finished Newt’s Emerald and Finding Fraser (video to come!), I am now between books and enjoying a torrid literary affair with several authors at once.

The cats seem completely unperturbed by the mites and the cleaning… see, totally floppy and oblivious. Just wait until the new vacuum arrives…

photo P1030094_zpshsosjbpj.jpg — one of these things is not like the others

I’m off to enjoy the rest of my afternoon and get some more reading in before the boy comes over.

TTFN!

the view from sunday: the life-changing magic of tidying up

True story: I’m an organizer. I love keeping things in order. It doesn’t always look tidy, but there’s a method to my madness. My mom, however, has a bit of a problem letting go. Not I… I purge with abandon. Now that she’s retired, it’s time to start getting rid of all the stuff she’s held on to for the sake of work. Plus all that other stuff she’s refused to let go. Hoping to send her on her magic, cleaning journey, I gave her a copy of Marie Kondo’s The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up in Spanish (hooray for translations!). To make sure she follows through, I picked up a copy myself. She’ll have no excuse but to get to it.

My mom’s hoarding aside, this book is awesome! There are some claims that make me feel a little squinty-eyed with doubt, but most of the advice is incredibly practical and easy to follow. The life-changing magic part? Learning that I’ve been storing my clothes all wrong. Seriously, who knew storing clothes vertically rather than horizontally makes such a difference? So much free space now! Nothing snags when I open a drawer.

My home is so much lighter without all the clutter. Still have far to go before it’s just right, but it’s a start.

Behold, the great purge! All donated, of course.

Now, to bask in the glory of it all.

a whirlwind of dust

I find cleaning to be a very cathartic activity, especially when it involves getting rid of old, useless junk. This afternoon, I became a bit upset over something that I had no control over, so I decided to finally tackle my bookshelf, my two junk drawers, and the drawer where I keep all of my digital photo stuff. The result, I feel slightly less edgy and my bookshelf looks all neat and colorful 🙂