Sometimes I feel as if I clean far too much. Unfortunately when I have very little space to work with, I am not clearing stuff out so much as shuffling clutter from one spot to another. My garage lately has been a sort of catch all for the clutter. It helps the majority of it to not be IN the house, although it’s still out there. I am actually a little concerned about how much is out there sometimes. There are boxes I have not unpacked from Hawaii yet. There was even one box that I tried unpacking and I had to stop when I discovered that a bottle of after-sun gel had leaked everywhere. The gel has lidocaine in it, which is fine for everyone else in the house, but I am allergic to it. (I sort of love how the movers wouldn’t move my expensive lotions that were in a sealed container, inside another sealed container, but they just tossed that bottle in with paper.)
Anyway, my point in all of this is that every year, around this time I get the odd desire to clear out the clutter. I have spent the last couple days cleaning up after a sick kid so this has hampered my abilities to use this desire to clean to much good use. As I look around the edge of my laptop into the living room, I can see the clutter from here. A pile on the chair that shouldn’t be in the living room next to the television, a patrol cap next to the hermit crab tank, some military buckles on top of the piano… All these little sources of clutter may not seem like much but they add imperfections to the picture as a whole.
I am the mean type of mom that wants my children to keep their toys in their room. This works out about 85% of the time until I step on a Lego in the hallway in the middle of the night. I swear it’s like Toy Story and those toys manage to crawl out of the room on their own because according to my children, none of them did it. (By the way, best curse for anyone? Shout “I hope you step on a Lego!” It hurts like fire walking according to some people.) To be honest, my reasons for wanting the toys in the rooms could be considered selfish. For one, I hate picking up toys repeatedly. It’s repetitive, annoying, and painful after awhile, regardless of whether you lean over and pick it up, use your toes, or bend at the knees. Either way, you are pretty sore by the end of the day. Second reason… I hate looking at it. I am an adult, or at least I like to pretend I am, so when people come over, (which is rare, but it happens), I want them to look around and think, “Nice house!” I don’t want that thought to be interrupted with, “Is that My Little Pony?” I have children, yes, but none of them can be considered toddlers or babies anymore. This means, they are old enough to take their own toys back to their own rooms.
Back to spring cleaning though, I need to go through the garage. Normally I look at it and go, “yeah I’ll deal with that later.” Lately I just feel the need to go through it now. I blame the weather. Even for Arizona standards, it has been a very gorgeous spring. It’s like the weather calls to you to open your windows, and then as soon as you do, you see that layer of dust in the windowsill and decide to get rid of it, and while you’re there, you should wash the window, and wow, those blinds are looking pretty dirty too…
Full Nest Syndrome 