Speed Cleaning 101

I looked at my bedroom and decided that this would be the day that I would straighten it up and I also decided that I would keep my room nice from now on.  I had tried many times before but with not much success.  For a short while things would look good and perfect and I would have a feeling of peace and tranquility as I would lay on my bed reading a book. but before too long and piece by piece things would build up ending in an undesirable look of clutter.  I would frustratingly search for the match of a shoe finally giving up and only to resign myself to wearing another pair.  Today it was different, I don't know if it was because of a near fall on a the slick pages of a fallen magazine or maybe my tripping over an old cardbooard box filled with dusty receipts, but tonight when I went to bed I would once again have that feeling of peacefulness because I would have tackled the chaos of a warzone, my bedroom.


I cleared my mind of any thoughts that could possibly steer me away from my mission.  I picked up my first piece of clutter  a small wooden train car that was once a part of an entire train on a Christmas ornament.  Suddenly my mind wandered to when the ornament was given to me.  My Mom, who is now deceased had bought it at a gift shop it was tiny and painted a colorful yellow with wheeels of red.  Even though there was only one piece left I temporarily talked myself out of throwing this little momento away I felt it would be like stomping on my mother's memory and all I had left of my Mom were the memories. I moved on to he next thing laying on the floor, this was an old postcard written from Switzerland by my Swiss grandmother.  Darn, another memory I couldn't possibly throw this away.  The scenery on the card was beautiful and looking at the postcard took me back to a time when I lived there as a kid.  I would place the card with my Mom's train ornament. The next thing I needed to tackle chose me as I once again I tripped and this time it was over a tangled ball of yarn.  I used a few curse words on this one and maybe even invented a few new words.  Needless to say,  I was getting nowhere had  to get a scissor to cut the tangled yarn and then I would throw it away and the yarn wasn't a memory, or was it.  My mind wandered again, the yarn could be made into something maybe a scarf although there wasn't enough yarn for that I could add the yarn to something else and of course how horrible would it be to dishonor my grandmother and mother who both taught me what I know about knitting.  The yarn stayed with the postcard and the broken train ornament. It was the proper and repectful thing to do.

I looked around at my bedroom I had not acheived my goal and it was frustrating.  I decided that my tug of war with a much needed organization of my things and the desire to hold on to my memories had to end or at least come to a compromise so I went into the kitchen, grabbed a clean garbage bag and put every misplaced item in it even the three momentos. Everyday I would take something out of the bag and find a place for it but today I would just sit on my bed and inwardly praise myself for a job well done.