Cleaning up and out – January 2021

The donation that didn’t get picked up in December because of snow and ice, finally left the house this week with a few additional bags added in the interim. It added up to a full porch of ‘stuff.’

Cleaning up and out is not an activity I am as enthusiastic about as photography or a good book or taking a walk or cooking – but I am realizing how good it feels with the pile of ‘stuff’ gone. Maybe my enthusiasm for the activity is increasing.

I’ve developed some evaluation ‘rules’ for myself as I go through the accumulation of items from the 25 years we’ve lived in this house:

Is it something I will use in the next 6 months? If so – put it away in the appropriate place

If no – Is it something that is important enough to me that I want to move it to the next house? If so – pack it and label the box.

If no – decide how it will leave the house: donate, recycle, trash.

My husband is much more reluctant to get rid of things than I am. Much of what I am packing is stuff that he wants to keep but has been in the basement for at least 10 years without being used (lots of dusting required before it is packed). It’s not worth arguing about. So far – I’ve found plenty of boxes to pack up items.

In the realm of cleaning – my husband looked more closely at the carpet attachment for our cordless vacuum cleaner and discovered that it was almost clogged with lint and hair (human and cat)! He cleaned it thoroughly and we are anticipating that its cleaning ability will be ‘like new’ after it dries out.

The next big round to stuff leaving the house will be a trek to the landfill in early February with ‘household hazardous waste’ (some old fluorescent bulbs), electronics (non-functioning computers and cables that have accumulated in our basement), and trash items too large to conveniently put out at the curbside for the weekly pickup. I’ll post about our landfill adventure in February!

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The Tennessee Wildlife Agency is hosting a Virtual Celebration of Cranes January 11 -16. Check it out at https://www.tn.gov/twra/wildlife/birds/sandhill-crane-festival.html - we are planning to enjoy a little ‘armchair birding’ with this first virtual event of 2021.