A Fall Flingin'

I know Spring is the time to clean everything. They say "Spring Cleaning," and I get that. I do usually get the bug around then to air out the bedding, open the windows and give everything a good scrubbing.

But it seems that every Fall I get a different bug. I do "Spring Cleaning" around March and April and "Fall Flinging" around October and November. What is "Fall Flinging?" It's all about decluttering and tossing what I'm not using and rearranging closets and organizing spaces.

Yes, I'm a tosser.

And, you see, we have this project that I've been dreading for two and a half years. Did you ever hear of the saying "out of sight, out of mind?" Well, we took that saying to heart when we were remodeling the basement. Our basement was just one big cement brick walled, cement slab floored room under our house. When we moved in four years ago, we put all the moving boxes down there. Then, as we put things away upstairs the pile dwindled to a less immense pile, but it was still pretty big. The first room Mike made downstairs was a storage room. Shelves went along the walls and in went all those boxes to fill up the shelves (in no particular order) and they filled up the floor, too! Then, Mike built a bathroom, his workshop, a family room/den and a bedroom. While he was doing all that several other things went into that storage room: extra office supplies, games, camping stuff, crafting stuff, seldom-used appliances, seldom-used dishes, etc. That room became a catch-all for every miscellaneous thing we owned. It remained out of sight, and out of mind!!!

Now, it's time to face the music. There's enough room to open the door of the storage room. I have carted off one load to Goodwill (it filled up my whole Trailblazer!) and I have another charity coming on Monday to take away another load. And you can barely tell I've done anything in there. I've got over four hours of work done in that room! But, it's Fall Fling time!!!

I'm moving the office supplies out, the games out, I'm getting rid of lamps and a vacuum cleaner and several things we haven't used in over a year. (I am, however, keeping my china and my Currier & Ives dishes - I can't part with either, even though I don't know if or when I'll ever use them...) Everything is covered in drywall dust, which makes it a pain in the neck, but I will be SO GLAD when it's done!

And it may take me until the end of November for this Fall Fling to be over!!!