A better title for this post is “How Spring Cleaning Almost Tackled Me”. Yesterday I decided to clean my back bedroom. I couldn’t put it off anymore, it’s booked for guests at the end of the month. It looked like I mainly needed to declutter, pero en realidad, it also needed  a thorough cleaning, it was a trying day. I do have a couple more weeks before I need to have it ready, pero la verdad es, that I just keep putting it off para mañana. Tomorrow.

My backroom has hosted many tenants, from family, to exchange students, to friends. My apa was the most important person who occupied that room and after he left, it remained Tatas room. His pictures are all up on the wall but I don’t go in there too often anymore, most times, the curtains are drawn close. Once in a while, I’ll drop something off to temporarily store it. Pero de repente, the room got too cluttered with stuff. I don’t want to call it junk, because it’s not. Aunque the stuff is not useful to me, it’s useful to someone. I’m slowly working on getting it to “someone” soon enough. Acuerdense, I have two weeks.

Procrastination couldn’t hold me back yesterday. It yelled “What about your desk work?” But I just kept walking down the hallway. I opened the door and Hopelessness slumped down on my shoulders, it whispered “It’s too much, you need to wait and get some help.” As I looked around I was so tempted to turn around, pero I didn’t, I pulled myself right into the mess. It just dawned on me that you are going to imagine the worst mess ever, que vergüenza. Pero asi es, o no? That unseen room, that unseen drawer, the one we just throw things into, will get neglected. Tatas’ room was overwhelmingly neglected. The beds were piled with the unwanted “stuff” The dresser and end table were full of clutter. Everything was dusty and cobwebs were on the corners of the widow. Where in the world would I start? Procrastination whined, “just do it mañana, it’s too late to start today.” Did I mention that I had to wash all the linen and curtains too? Hijole! Oh! And the ceiling fan needed wiping down. 

I cranked up a good podcast called “choose your attitude” and leaned heavily on the left side of my brain to maximize on all work that needed to be done. I went through all the stuff, yes, all of it. I kept my rational side in front and did not let my emotional side look too hard at the things I was not keeping. I sold some things on Offerup, called a few friends to see if they wanted “such and such,” threw out broken things and had overall victory! If I made that sound easy, sorri, es que if I look back and tell you the whole picture, I might end up pulling those things back into the room before my yard sale and good will trip this weekend.

Ahora si, with my “Old Time Religion” station singing,  I got down to cleaning and washing. Beds were stripped, curtains came down, cobwebs were wiped away, dusting was taken care of. Hijole, I was tired, me acuerdo cuando estaba joven, Oh how I mourned the strength, speed and energy of my youth.  “Back in my day” I could spring clean, take the kids to the park, grocery shop, cook and serve dinner and not feel an ache. No importa! Things are progressing, I can report that as of right now, I am closer to being done, muy pronto I will be able to present a nice fresh room for our houseguests.  

En conlusíon

At the end of the day, although I was wiped out, I had accomplished some spring cleaning and decluttering! I must admit, that I’m glad for commitments, because otherwise, Tatas room would have remained undone hasta mañana! Dios los Bendiga.