The Relief of Completing Nagging Tasks

You may recall my “Bad Mom” post last week when I stayed home to get stuff done while Cassie went to the sitter’s as usual. I wanted to post an update on what I was able to accomplish during those two days.

I did some regular errands, like grocery shopping (so much more leisurely than usual!), dishes, laundry, coupon-clipping, and vacuuming.

But the BIG one was cleaning out my home office. My God, was it a disaster. I took some video of the “before” scene with my fancy new phone, but of course, I have no clue how to get that video from my phone to this post. You’ll have to imagine the nightmare based on my description instead:

• Five bookshelves jam-packed with books (in no particular order), along with many other items I didn’t know what to do with. So of course, I put them on my bookshelves.
• A pack-n-play filled with random junk, accompanied by a Diaper Champ and diaper-changing supplies.
• Bags, boxes, and more crap covering just about every square inch of the room.
• An old orange chair with a hole chewed out of it four years ago by our then-puppy.
• Big metal filing cabinet containing our important (and non-important) papers from the past 10 years or so.
• My desk, holding my laptop, printer, speakers, office supplies, and bills/paperwork. You know, where I work, write in my blogs, connect with people, and do other key activities.

With Cassie out of the picture, I turned up the iTunes and went to work clearing out the crap. I can’t describe how freeing it felt to empty out and put away that pack-n-play, along with all the baby stuff. For two years, my office has basically served as a changing room, with my desk and accumulating junk as peripherals. It often smelled like, well, poo. As I shifted the room’s priority back to its original purpose (work–professional and personal), I felt like I was reclaiming a little bit of myself.

As I sorted through the books, I realized how many of them meant nothing to me. Why had I been dragging my old college textbooks with me, move after move, from box to shelf and back to box? Seems silly now. I kept only the books that had serious sentimental value to me (Anne of Green Gables) or were still useful (Webster’s Dictionary). All others, I dropped off at Half-Price Books in exchange for instant cash!

And a lot of those things I didn’t know what to do with? Garbage, recycling, or donations to AmVets. I guess I just didn’t want to deal with them at the time, or accept that I really had no use for them.

After all that clutter-clearing, I was left with only two bookshelves (not five) filled with books, another shelf for office supplies, the filing cabinet (which I still need to clean out), my desk, and still, the orange chair. The floor was clear. Everything had a place. Ahhhhhhh.

I still need to do a little redecorating in there: new color of paint on the walls, new window treatments, reupholstering of the orange chair. I’m going to get rid of the two extraneous bookshelves (more room to breathe). But essentially, my office is no longer the nagging, overwhelming task that stared me in the face every time I walked past it. I highly recommend it.