Clean

So I can clean the dickens out of my house but keeping it clean is another story. I am the worst about letting clutter collect; a stack of papers on the counter, the plate we need to return to the neighbors on the entry table for weeks, the egg crusher from Dan's project that I don't want to throw away but that doesn't have a place. That stupid egg crusher, it sits there on the shelf sticking it's tongue out at me every time I go by, along with 1006 other singular objects, waiting for me to decide what to do with them. Yuck!

Whenever we move, there is a time between getting ready for the movers and the movers arriving that we live simply in an uncluttered space. There are very few toys, I stay on top of papers that need sorting, the laundry is minimal and the upkeep of the house is easy. I like it.

We are there right now. Every drawer and closet has been cleaned out. Every stack of papers has been sorted and taken care of. Anything we don't need for the next 3 months has been boxed up and put in the attic. All those tasks that I hate but are always nagging me, are done and it feels so good.

Until the house sells we have to keep the house perfectly clean and ready to show. That sounded like a daunting and for me, a pretty unlikely task but we have been doing it for a week and so far, so good.

So now I keep wondering if it is possible to always live like this. Is it unrealistic with this many moving pieces to keep order or does it just take some discipline? Is this something that is just unrealistic for me, I am a notoriously bad time manager, or is this something I can master?

Every time we move, I am determined to be more organized and simplify but I always fall back into my same old habits, running from one project/activity to the next. This time however, we are moving few people. We don't have any preschoolers or babies. Maybe a few months of being forced to live like this will teach me a few things. Maybe I am in a perfect place to really learn some new habits. Wish me luck!

By the way, the egg crusher? It broke while we were cleaning out and packing. I ended up throwing it away without a thought. Lesson learned? We'll see.