the clean out continues

There is something really cathartic about cleaning out everything. You have a good look at something and decide "yes" or "no". If only everything in this world was so simple.

Yesterday I sorted out material, buttons, zips, odd bods of things (a lot ended up in the bin bag) and cleaned up about four shelves worth of stuff.

I also have put all the old doonas into space saver bags and sucked the air out of them before I put them into a newly cleaned trunk. There is something very surreal about putting old doonas into a bag and then sucking the "life" out of it and watching the shape change from a recognisable object to something that is small and ugly!

I had to clean out the trunk - all my wine collection wrapped in a single doona. I then had to clean off the wine rack (in the coats cupboard/linen press which has now become costume storage and linen/press). There was really 'old' alcohol there. I didn't realise that alcohol could go off but it did. I had something like "velvet cream" (yuck! - prefer the original of Irish cream) which had become a solid mess....... The gin had got thicker etc. Down the sink it went and the bottle got thrown into the recycle.

I am doing this in stages - am not coping with more than an hour at a time. Saying that I have almost cleaned out the study - although to look at it you would think that I have a huge amount to go. I have tried to do this all at once before and I failed badly. I think you have to be in the 'right' frame of mind. You have to know that you are about to clean out what you have stored over the last few years.

It is all too easy to leave it and hope it goes away but it never does. If anything, it multiplies.

I really don't have a lot of stuff there as I have only lived here for 4 years and I moved MANY times before I came here. I always went through my stuff every six months but when I moved here I was comfortable and couldn't be bothered. I knew that it needed to be done but I then let the noise the neighbours made get to me.

They are really quite awful - they swear at each other at the top of their voices and 'live' outside all the time. I have let them get to me in more ways than one. I have tried to escape every Friday and Saturday night which has resulted in me being so tired. I have let my eating get out of control - I lost over 20 kgs a year ago and I have put half of that back on. You don't really need to know that but I am telling you so that you can see what I mean by them getting to me.

I am moving - a few ideas going on here and there, and I have got the mind set that I am taking back 'control' of my life. I am on top of the cleaning/sorting out stuff and then next I will tackle the food side of it. I just have to make the decision if it will be next week (starting tomorrow) or when I go back to work and I can almost guarantee when I eat (scheduled lunch breaks etc) so it is easier to control. I am back at the gym now and am walking a lot more.