And, apparently, “jar”.

This is my windowsill in the kitchen.  It used to be covered with a lot of clutter and crap, and this past week, I threw everything away that was on it (or moved it to where it belonged, at least), wiped it off despite the peeling and rotting wood, and lay down a handwoven runner that I made a while back.  The tealight looked kind of pretty next to the jar, which used to be full of old sponges for some reason.  It will eventually contain flowers from outside, if the peonies bloom again this year.  And you can just barely see the hills beyond the house.

The hills that would, mind you, be kind of pretty, if they didn’t belong to a rock quarry that’s cleared them of any living vegetation.  *grump*

It seems like the light here’s been so pretty the last couple days.  Blue-ish and clear.  A big change from the overcast grey of the past few months.  I’m also blaming the sun for this cleaning spurt.

Today, I actually maxed out the ChoreWars points you can earn in a day…by 2 p.m..  I tried putting in my points for the lunch dishes, and it cut me off!  Apparently, you can only earn a thousand in a day.

Yes, I said A THOUSAND.

Today’s been de-clutterpalooza over here at Chez Wife.  I tossed out some stuff from the office, then hit the upstairs bathroom and got the medicine drawer and the other drawers/cabinets, and started in on my art studio.

Oh. my.

A mouse got into my art supplies drawers.  Or the bottom two, at least.  Chewed up what is probably thousands of dollars in equipment and supplies.  I ended up throwing out LITERALLY more than a hundred and fifty things, just from those drawers and the surrounding area.  Listed a bunch of books on amazon.  Gave away even more.

I’m finally starting to be able to breathe up in here.

There’s still a LONG way to go, don’t get me wrong.  My tub still has the dead tin man thing going on and there’s more clutter than space, and dust motes outnumber the occupants here a few legion to one.  But I’m getting there.  Slowly.

I have to run and get groceries, and take a few hours to myself this afternoon.  Out, away from it all, to get some more fresh air and perspective.  (I’m shopping for a pair of matchy-matchy lamps for the bedroom, to be honest.  Now that it’s cleaner in there, I like sitting in bed, reading before sleeping.  I didn’t know how much all that dirt and clutter was affecting the way I felt, really.  I knew I felt a little anxious and depressed with it all messy, but didn’t realize that I was subconsciously avoiding the whole ROOM.  Sheesh.)

Then it’s Back With A Vengeance Time.  I want to bag up all this stuff and take a picture.  Seriously, folks — you won’t believe it.  BAGS and BAGS of what amounts to TRASH that’s been living in my house, rent-free, for all this time.  Stuff that I never really thought of as “trash”, either.  It was my art supplies, or my old paperwork, or some toys that we were keeping, or clothes in my closet, or some old hot-rollers for my hair from the days with Really Big Hair…not “trash”.    But bagged up?  It’s trash.  And it always has been; I just didn’t have the eyes to see it or the heart to get rid of it before now.

What I really DO know, though, is that my house is going to be much easier to clean when it’s all gone.  And there will be room to breathe and grow again.  It’s like that jar, sitting there on the windowsill — empty and ready for something more beautiful than itself to fill it, rather than storing stuff that no longer brings joy.

And that makes maxing out my ChoreWars just that much better.