Cleaning up

I just spent the last two hours cleaning the office.  Man, did that feel good!  I am going to bare my soul here - I found receipts buried in the strata that were from - wait for it - 2007.  Egads.

At my 9-5 jobs, my desk was as spotless as it could be.  It had to be - I found it impossible to work in a cluttered space.  I was always terrified that I would misplace an invoice or paperwork that someone at Corporate would desparately need.  People at work assumed I was a neatnik at home, too.

To that I say, HA!  I have always been a clutterbug.  I come by it naturally - my mom is the same way.  She has books stacked to the rafters in her house, as do I.  She's got a stack of newspapers waiting for the recycle bin - so do I.  She saves scraps of paper with numbers on them that might be important, and greeting cards from 5 years ago.  Oh, so do I.  I can take solace in the fact that my sister Jen also inherited this idiosyncracy.  We talk about it often.

Oddly, my dad was the most organized person that I've ever met.  He was the kind of guy who would label EVERYTHING.  I have very fond memories of Dymo labels making appearances all over the house (I was so enthralled, in fact, that I bought my own Dymo label maker and tapes with my allowance money when I was eleven.  I was a geek).  If it couldn't be marked with labels, then my dad would get out the ol' engraver.  He passed away in '04 but my brother in-law Mike inherited all of his tools, which were Craftsman brand that he bought in the 70's - and are still in perfect shape.  Whenever I see that beautiful handwriting of his engraved in those tools, it makes me smile.

But back to our house - poor Brian!  The house in which we currently reside is a house that Brian built for himself back in '02.  So when we got married I essentially moved into his house, which was neat as a pin before Hurricane Mel left her path of destruction (normally I don't make it a point of referring to myself in the third person, but I'm trying to make a point).  Brian is not a very sentimental person when it comes to objects.  Now, this is a trait that I can get behind!  I definitely have to be in a certain mood to be motivated enough to clean.  Brian can just walk in a room, pick up stuff and move on.  He should teach a class on organization!

So, it's off to the next project - my studio.  UGH.  This one is gonna hurt.  Wish me luck - I'm going to need it!