I Promise to Burn the Candles and Use the Soap!

09 June 2013

Hello Friends,
As you know I have been cleaning and purging this week! When my daughter was home, we turned the boy's room into a beautiful guest room. After she left, I did a major overhaul on the garage. I gave away TONS of things to our church garage sale. I took TONS of things to Goodwill. And I rented a 2 yard garbage can to dispose of broken, old, or just plain yucky items. Now don't get me wrong, I am a GREEN person. I recycle. I reuse and I reduce. BUT there are just some things that cannot be used again and I apologize for adding my "junk" to the landfill......

Today, I tackled my home office.... Oh yeah....... my home office that has slowly turned into a HUGE closet for all my school related stuff and craft supplies. In fact, when my sister-in-law came over for dinner a few weeks ago, I did not have time to do my usual "stuff and look away", so I purchased a spring rod and a lacy curtain and hung it in the doorway. (That particular room does not have a door!) Out of sight, out of mind, right? Oh brother............

So today was the day to tackle the office... Let's see.... It is now WHAT???!!!! Holy guacamole! It is almost 6:00 p.m. and I have been working on my office since 11:00 a.m.! Whoa.....

There just was sooooo much to do! You could not even walk in my office without stepping on a picture book, a crayon, or a pack of stickers. AND, you would not believe all the PAPER that was stuck into boxes, my school bag, in piles on my desk, on the floor....... sheeesh........It was totally ridiculous going through all that paper. But I got through it and also managed to organize my school craft supplies as well as my school books and other school related items.

I cannot believe I am sharing this picture with you, but perhaps, if I do, I will be permanently shamed into it never happening again! And this was AFTER about an hour of cleaning!

But here's the thing....... As I was wading through this IMMENSE operation, I started thinking..... WHY do I need a Cricut AND a Silhouette Cameo cutter? WHY do I need EIGHT boxes of crayons? WHY do I need TEN rolls of masking tape and FIVE pairs of scissors? And WHY, WHY, WHY do I keep the lovely candles and soaps that I get from my students in their packages and not use them? Didn't my sweet students give me these gifts to USE? I can think of no logical reason - AT ALL! So today, I made a promise..... I promise to burn the candles and use the soap! I promise to use the cute stationary that is given to me and not keep it in a pile in my office. And I promise to shred and recycle paper that I do not need anymore.

I do not know why this has happened to me. I have accused my husband and children for years of being hoarders and prided myself in the fact that I was not attached to "things." I boasted the fact that I could give away outdated clothing with no problem at all. "Things" have never meant a lot to me... or so I thought....... Going through old teacher books, photos of old students, hand drawn cards by both my students and my own children..... all "things" that I found were very, very difficult to decide which to keep and which to dispose of. Which got me thinking about all the people who have lost their homes due to natural disasters. You always hear them say "We are just glad to be alive. Things can be replaced." They are right.... THINGS can be replaced. It is OKAY to burn the candles and use the soap....

And one more thing.... here is a picture of my office now... not perfect, but much better than it was 6 hours ago! And yes, my desk IS purple... It used to be in my classroom and I haven't refinished it yet.... maybe next year????