Do you have a room in your home that gives you the feeling of flight or fight?? It is such a mess you don't know where to begin? It's been the dumping grounds for a good few years and you aren't sure what's in there anymore?
I have a room like that. Actually, it rotates from being clean, neat, tidy and everything-has-its-place to "OMG!! Get in there and clean it up!" Now my sister says it's not that bad. I think she's being nice or she's afraid I'm going to ask her to help me clean it up.
It's the same stuff everybody has in these dark and seedy rooms: Empty boxes that are perfect for shipping gifts out next holiday season, the rolls of wrapping paper propped up in the corner for the next time you need to wrap a gift. There are little bits of paper with notes on them that for some reason you decided you needed to keep. Old magazines dating back to the last time you cleaned out the room. What was it about these magazines I felt compelled to keep?? Was there an article in there about saving the Earth or a photograph of a bracelet I just HAD to make. Oh and then there's that small pile of mending. I do get to it a piece at a time. A shirt here, pants there -- but I am diligent with my mending. Heck, if I didn't, I'd be running around half-dressed because everything I own eventually ends up in the mending pile in "that room."
Oh, I think I forgot to mention.....this is also the same room that I have a table set up for me on which I make my jewelry! Aaaackkkkk!!!!! (that's a blood-curdling scream) Hey, I didn't say this was going to be a pretty story!
The table is a really good size (like a church banquet table.) I have a high density/magnifying light which is wonderful for these poor little, aging eyes of mine. And I have all my bins stacked up with findings, gems, jump rings, brass charms and filigree, pearls -- everything I need...except for a sense of Zen.
I figured the best way to tackle this room was to hit the area I use most -- my jewelry making corner. Oh that work table!! I couldn't see the top due to the little piles of stuff on it: beads here, pearls there, charms strewn about. But I sat there with my little bins and bottles and separated everything out and got it all put away. Wow! What a difference. I actually have a work table now. I almost feel like....no, dare I say it? I am an artist!!! What a sense of pride and accomplishment that I have a space which is all mine. Sure it's a table in the corner of this messed up room but in MY corner, things are hunky dory.
The next thing I did was recycle all the magazines I had been keeping. Why did I keep them? If I couldn't remember - they were not worth hanging on to. So I pitched them. Then came those crazy little notes. Most of them were website addresses scratched out on bits of paper. I looked at my "favorites" file on my computer. Sure enough, most of these website addresses were in my computer already, so out went the scraps of paper.
This was feeling good -- I had some power!! Next came the boxes for future shipping. I did keep those. I made them flat and crammed them between my table's leg and the wall. It worked quite well. So I still have those valuable boxes come December. The remainder of the day I just pulled up a chair in certain areas of the room and put it in order, threw stuff away, the recycling pile still growing. Lots of items got put into the closet for another day. I suddenly realized I had been in there for four hours! I walked out and then came back in and was I impressed! It was a real room again. Four walls, a floor, tables in order....I could even get to the window and open it up. I am not a hoarder -- just a person who holds on to stuff for a tad too long. The rest of my home is neat and tidy (that's because the Nightmare from Elm Street is the second door on the right.)
I got the vacuum out and hummed along with its sound as I swept back and forth. I could hear all the little tiny seed beads being sucked up as I moved the vacuum...I drop stuff -- it happens!
So..finally I was done. The room looks so nice now. It is an absolute pleasure to walk into. Sitting down to work on my jewelry is heaven. What can I say? I am a happy camper. All it took was looking at something in a different light. Maybe in was a matter of just opening up my eyes and mind to something I'd been hiding from. Whatever it is, it is never as bad as one thinks it will be.
What sort of challenge will you take on today??
Later, Jill
www.brassbouquet.com
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