Exhaustion
Who would have thought it?
Yesterday, according to my Fitbit app, I walked more than 5 miles without leaving the house; most of it was between wardrobes and the bed where robe contents were displaced and sorted. Now in the course of the motivational training sessions, I was warned that one wardrobe and a time limit of 4 hours were desirable. However, when Mister E expressed interest in getting his hanging rails decluttered too, it seemed opportune to keep going. After all when the man who cannot even bear to throw away a cardboard box, admits his closets need a good tidy up and needs help to do this, who could possibly refuse?
To be fair, he took to the process with a great deal more realism and less sentimentality than I did. In the end the hangers on his rails move freely whereas mine are still a trifle squeezed. Looking at the number of empty coat hangers we produced, I'm ashamed to say we must have jettisoned at least a hundred items between us, most of which were old work clothes now packed ready to donate to a charity shop or, in the case of old T shirts, cut up for painting rags.
When I finished at 7pm, I could hardly move and even managed to sleep for an extra hour and a half last night. Whoever reckons you have to go on a long walk in the fresh air to snooze well clearly underestimated the power of housework.
Mister E had a less contented night but the reason may have associations with his enquiry this morning as to whether I would mind if he removed one particular shirt from the box set aside to donate. So long as he didn't want to retain the box itself, I obviously wasn't going to object.
There you have it. With the appropriate preparation and a degree of determination, I really can declutter after all; I just have to go about it in the right way. I may only have earned a C+ for my attempt on this occasion but I shall be back for the A*. Trying to decide where and how to start has probably been overwhelming me for more years than I care to think and simply leaving the big tidy up for retirement was always a case of juggling priorities, rather than a sensible plan.
Our initial aspirations for retirement included decluttering and giving our home a complete makeover and although I've been exhausted today, energy and enthusiasm are generally rising in line with the level of exertion. It's just as well as I'm back to applying gloss paint to doors tomorrow.
Comments
Congratulations on the decluttering. I have made a few blunders in the past with mine, regretting afterwards things that I got rid of and later missed. It's a gamble but no excuse for hanging on to cupboards full of so much rubbish there's an avalanche to tackle before rummaging in the back to find what I need! It's not an easy thing to do.