Not For the Faint of Heart

I haven’t been able to write much lately. In the words of Ozzy Osbourne, my life is “going off the rails on a crazy train.” [yes, I did just quote Ozzy Osbourne but, it’s also an iconic song lyric, so I’m allowed]. On top of working full time during the day, rehearsing continually during nights, coming off of a big performance of Mahler’s 8th Symphony, and just two weeks away from performing the entire Handel’s Messiah, and launching into General Conference music… I am cleaning house.

Not just regular old cleaning house.

BIG CLEANING HOUSE!

The kind of cleaning and clearing and hauling and sorting that involves a giant 4 Ton garbage bin sitting in your driveway.

 

And involving hours and hours of hauling, sorting, pushing, pulling, lifting, smashing and throwing.

I’m trying to get my house in order, and it’s not for the faint of heart.

Last Saturday we tackled the RV Parking space – which had become a repository over the past 2 years of old bags of leaves we didn’t get to the curb in time for the annual fall pickup, broken lawnmowers we intended to fix, rusted tools, a couple of tables we forgot about… and who knows what else – [not mentioning the dead thing we found…] – yes, I am shaming myself. And we cleaned up the yard – which wasn’t really that bad but needed raking. Which was all a good thing because it snowed on Sunday and it rained on Monday.

 

Unfortunately, the worst still awaits.

There’s the Garage. Which is pretty daunting in and of itself, (but not half as bad as the RV space)

And then, the dreaded bonus room… i.e. “the room that must not be named”  which is stacked with boxes filled with who knows what (half of them I haven’t opened in years… but, I guess I have to look in them before I just throw them in the bin…), and other various and sundry things that I should or should not hold onto. [mostly should not] Like books and photos, and papers. Lots and lots of papers. Why do we hold onto those? And then there are those crafting and scrap-booking supplies that I know I WILL NEVER EVER use and yet I spent a small fortune on, so I keep holding onto them out of guilt or something… and of course there are my journals on the shelf [definitely KEEP FORVER items], and there’s a broken stereo [it gave us many great years of pleasure. It has fulfilled it’s purpose. So, why am I still holding onto it?!] And the computer desk that we have outgrown but is stacked with more of those papers and photos and documents…

And then there are the hundreds – thousands – possibly millions of music CDs stacked in cases. What does one do with hundreds – thousands – possibly millions of music CDs? Ideas?!

I’m like that man who couldn’t stop taking in cats. But instead of cats, I’ve been overrun with music CDs and I’m over run!

“Oh no! What will I ever do!?” cried the middle aged Mormon woman!?

The D.I. (our local charity thrift store) is going to hit the jackpot this weekend. If you are looking for a lot more music CDs, scrap-booking supplies, or boxes of unrecognizable things, you might want to go over there early next week.

Just sayin’.

Maybe the hardest part of de-cluttering is simply trying to DECIDE what is truly important enough to keep in the house and what we can finally just LET GO of. I also have to choose what is important enough to send to the new storage locker we have rented, and what we should just throw into the big green bin and send into the void.

At this point, I’m ready to throw EVERYTHING inside the house into the big green bin and call it good. We can become minimalists and sleep on the floor, eat off of one recyclable plate, and rotate between wearing 2-3 outfits.

It could happen.

Okay, not.

The big green bin is half full. Which means we still have a long way to go. The clock is ticking for our rental rate, and my endurance is draining even faster.

Pray for me. – MoSop

P.S. I have a really nice used piano for sale. Standard console size, mounted on wheels for easy moving. Solid hardwood, beautiful condition, matching padded bench. Only $600. If you live in northern Utah you could bring this sweet little piano into your home and it will provide lots of love, happiness and musical joy for years to come. Please message me. Seriously. [If I’m not buried under a mountain of CDs I promise I’ll respond promptly].