I am now happily into my second week of retirement. Yay! And even though everyone told me I would wonder when I ever had the time to work, I didn’t believe it. Now I do. Of course, sleeping in a couple of hours later doesn’t exactly add hours to my already crammed “to do” list. I have had projects waiting for years until “I had the time.” Not surprisingly, a lot of those projects include cleaning out years’ worth of accumulated stuff from closets and drawers—something I’m still avoiding. In my defense, I did clean off the dresser and my work desk (yes, it was that bad), as well as cleaned out my sweater closet (don’t ask) and the refrigerator. I even went through my completely unorganized closet and reorganized most of my clothes. There were a few clothes I actually parted with. However, it never fails if I get rid of something I haven’t used in ten years, I will inevitably need it next week.

My cleaning out stuff goes something like this: I find something I don’t know what to do with but don’t want to get rid of, so I move it to another place that I haven’t gotten around to cleaning out yet. When I get to that area, I will take the same item and probably move it back to the first place. This is why our house always stays so cluttered. There simply is no place for the “don’t know what to do with” items.

Plus, Hubby is not much help. (I haven’t picked on him in a while, so it’s time.) He can’t stand to see a nice, clean space without something occupying it. The day I cleaned off the dresser, he threw old receipts, pens, his hat, keys, and spare change on it. For some reason, Hubby can never throw away old receipts. They lay wherever he happens to deposit them until I throw them away. He also can’t hang up his hats or his keys, which is why he is forever losing them. The day I cleaned off my work desk, he managed to clutter it up with unwanted mail and papers he had downloaded. I kept my mouth shut and moved it all over to his desk. So far, he hasn’t caught on.

Okay, off the subject of Hubby. Most of the projects I have tackled so far have been small and doable. It’s somewhat embarrassing that I left some areas, like the pet supply cabinet, in a state of disarray for years because I “didn’t have time” to straighten it up. Yesterday, I pulled everything out from the bottom shelf, threw some things away, wiped down the shelf, and re-organized the stuff. It took me twenty minutes. But I simply haven’t had the inclination to get to the storage closet, the junk drawers, or the shelves in the bedroom closet. I will do them someday when I have more time. (Or maybe not.) My biggest fear is that once I finally get everything cleaned out and organized the way I want it, I will have to start completely over again because everything will be back to where it was before I started. With that reasoning in mind, it might be better if I just watched the soaps and ate bon-bons.