Spring Cleaning

Happy Spring! How better to celebrate our release from the grip of a long, cold winter than by a bit of spring cleaning?

My husband Ron enjoys wearing cologne, and I thoroughly approve. On Valentine's Day, I gave him a set of several designer fragrances that I had sampled and liked, and I thought he'd like them too.

A day later, as he was reorganizing the side of the bathroom cupboard reserved for him, he extricated several boxes from the back, then called me to come and look. I was amazed to see several more gift sets of colognes - each one by a different designer, thank goodness. These gifts from past holidays had been carefully stored away then forgotten. Ron selected a few small bottles and promised to start using them, and in turn I promised to be more creative in my gift selection.

That got me thinking about the implements we had scattered around the house. Were some being overlooked? Had we completely forgotten about others? Did we have some that had outlived their usefulness, or that we had outgrown?



The first place I looked was Ron's bedside table. I didn't see anything there that I wanted to part with, but I did notice a few implements that needed to come up to the top so that he would see them and perhaps become inspired to dust them off on my bottom.

Then I checked my bedside table. Unlike its counterpart on Ron's side, where the implements in regular use live, I have a few items that I would like to try but haven't yet found the courage to bring out of the darkness. A thick white rubber spatula on a plain wooden stick caught my eye. Yes, I still wanted to try that. I moved it to Ron's side. A wooden ruler. Too flimsy, and the metal edge was dangerous. A light hairbrush. Nope, it wouldn't make any impression on me. They both went into the give away bag.

Before I left the bedroom, I made sure that the implements we used regularly were arranged attractively, looked inviting and were easily accessible.




In the kitchen, I headed for the jar of wooden implements. I love picking up new, interesting pervertables in the houseware section of the supermarket, but I might have overdone it.




Some were actually used for cooking, so they could stay. But several wooden spoons and two spatulas were so light and cheap that they weren't up to much, either in the cooking pot or on my bottom. I removed them.




Decluttering is so much fun! Now if you'll excuse me, I must go sort out the slippers in the closet.