The Clean Up Woman

"Clean Up Woman" was a Betty Wright song that my mother used to play over and over. Today it is just me trying to get my house ready for the little ones. The goal right now is to get the kids room down to carpet and walls. The room that they will share has been an upstairs den, my first home office, the guest room, and then my mother's bedroom.

Even though I've cleaned the room several times, it still looks like my mother lives in there. Her books are still on the shelves, her jewelry boxes are on the dresser, her computer is still hooked up and her figurines are still around. This is the last hoorah for all of that. I remember when I was getting ready for the homestudy, I got so tired that I just stored things in the rubber containers and stacked them in the closet. Now I am going through them and really throwing things out. The room also has it's own bathroom and before the day is out I am taking down the shower curtains and stripping it down to the sink, stool, and shower.

The last couple of weeks I've gone through every closet in my house (except the kids linen closet) and thrown away every old/useless item. I don't even have that feeling of wanting to hold on to things. I want it all GONE! In my area you can only put out your one designated trash container. Everything else has to have a prepaid sticker. I feel like I'm single-handedly funding the city fund with all the stickers I've bought. A friend of mine convinced me to have a garage sale. Now, I'm more excited finding more things to get out of here. There will be some great bargains -- I'm pricing this stuff to sell, sell, sell!

I've made soooooo much progress but I still have a little ways to go. I've come to the realization that over the years I've bought too many gifts that never made it to the intended person, too much "brick-a-brack" that I've never used, and have far too many items hanging in the closet, in drawers and in the trunk of my car with price tags still on them. Now, I just have to figure out how I'm going to get that 8 foot bookcase with the connected desk out of the kids room.