Oh What a Glorious Feeling!

I have been struggling with an overflow of books. Normally this isn't a bad thing, but I have struggled with getting rid of books, any book, whether good or bad, interesting or boring. I have found myself physically incapable of purging my collection. The thought alone was enough to give me hives and set off a full-blown panic attack. Get rid of books? You must be CRAZY!

But like the crazy spinster with 100 cats, things had to change. It seemed that overnight piles of books had spawned more piles and things were getting out of control. Now I'll admit that, like the cat woman, I could be quite content in my insanity if left alone. But my family keeps shining the light on my 'problem', bringing clarity where I'd prefer a little darkness.

So for the past month I have been psyching myself up, trying to prepare myself for the inevitable day when I would weed out my collection. That day has come!

I cleaned my shelves. I actually took books off with the intention of giving them away, either to family, friends or the church. Yup, I'm thinning out my collection. Some of my favorite authors are releasing books in January and I decided I'd rather have some space to display the GREATS than clutter up my shelves with the OKAYS. And you know what? It actually feels kinda good. 'Course it could be I'm consoling myself with the knowledge that I have a book order on its way from Amazon, but we won't go there.

And you know what else? I got to spend three glorious hours surrounded by towering stacks of books as I sorted, cleaned, organized and alphabetized. The smell of paper and ink; the feel of holding great literature in my hands. Now I ask, is there anything better than that? It's an adrenaline rush for the bookish and let me tell you, I'm flying high!

Spring Cleaning

Spring Cleaning. Okay, admittedly this is not the most fun topic to discuss, but this year has been my first venture into the nitty-gritty-washing-walls-elbow-grease cleaning.

My hubby and I decided to clean and de-clutter our house to get it more organized and comfortable. This has always been a rather daunting task to me. Part of the hazards of perfectionism. We perfectionists (only in some areas) tend to only tackle tasks and jobs that we know we can do and do well. Disorganization drives us crazy and jobs half done push us over the edge of insanity. :-)

Which is why I've never undertaken this task. Who has time to do it right? I certainly don't. So it was easier to pretend it didn't exist. Until recently, that is.

We began a couple weeks ago, with the attainable goal of one-room-a-night. IT WORKED! Well, it worked with one exception. I now have a clean kitchen, bathroom, living room and entryway. And then I ran out of steam and ambition. Actually we went away and it's been hard to get into the swing of things again. However, these are the main rooms of the house and by spending most of my time in them - and by avoiding the rest of the house - I can maintain that feeling of accomplishment.

So, "Yipee" for these four rooms. I'm going to temporarily forget about the other rooms - master bedroom and closet, ensuite, baby's room, pantry, linen closet, laundry room/bathroom, boys' room, spare bedroom, under-the-stairs storage room, furnace room, family room and computer area. And we won't even go into the yard work.

Don't you just love spring cleaning?! LOL!