Re-arrange / 2010

New Year's Eve.

I don't do "Resolutions."

However, I'm psyched with an idea to Re-arrange my home.

Re-arrange means, to me --
to arrange everything for maximum ease and pleasure,
and minimum time / effort necessary for maintenance.

When I visited my Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Grant in Ohio a couple of years ago, Aunt Kathleen told me that when she had first started out as a young bride, right after WW II, she had decorated her house with various items -- the "knickknacks" -- things -- we women buy because they're beautiful and we think they will make our homes beautiful.

Aunt Kathleen said she found that she didn't like to take the time necessary to clean the many small items -- she likes an immaculate house; on the other hand, she & my Uncle Grant are active people even now, in their 80s -- they go, go, go....ball games, cook-outs, out to supper, dancing, dinner theater, Lake Erie, Key West -- whatever-ya-got. And I can imagine that back in their younger days, they put the miles on!

She wanted to limit the time necessary for home maintenance, so she gathered up all the small, fussy decorations and gave them to her mother.

And, she told me, "In a few weeks I went to visit my mother, and I could see that she wasn't dusting them either."

!

I've thought of that story several times since, while cleaning, and other times.

I want to use my time for my Writing project and exercises, and for working out, and for pure enjoyment, whatever it might be that day.
Life is short.
I want to streamline my house-cleaning / upkeep routine.

So I am psyched up with this idea that over this New Year's weekend (starting tonight, even!) I will engage in a major Stuff Removal Project at my house.

I think I will gather all the decorative pieces and
a) throw some away -- enough, already -- and my taste has outgrown some of it; and
b) keep things that are true favorites and --
I. store some away;
II. display some, in one spot;
III. rotate things a few times a year, letting the stored things & the displayed things trade places; and
IV. let most of my decorating consist of a few large items that I really love -- framed Bob Dylan poster; a few framed Impressionist prints, etc.

Keep it simple & easy to take care of.

I'm visualizing; I'm ready.

-30-

This is going to --
A) free up some of my time, and
B) look different, for the new year, and
C) look good.