Spring cleaning......

The last few days of (mostly) wall to wall sunshine, and gradually increasing temperatures have tempted me to throw off my winter languor in anticipation of an early spring.
This unaccustomed  spurt of energy and enthusiasm has even spurred me into tackling the first tentative stages of preparation for our spring project - the redecoration of our bedroom.

Attentive blog readers with l-o-n-g memories may remember that almost EXACTLY a year ago I was of a similar mind.... girding my loins to make a start on the bedroom redecoration of which I speak.  I even blogged my plans and intentions HERE.

A whole year ago.

My, my.  Doesn't time fly...?

The go-getters amongst you will be wondering why on earth we didn't just get on and do it.  Admittedly, the gigantic triple wardrobe is a major stumbling block, but there's also the small matter of the smallest bedroom, which is full to bursting with all manner of miscellaneous 'stuff'. 

It's like one of those rooms from 'The Hoarder Next Door', although I hasten to add that we only have ONE room in the house so full of stuff you can hardly get in.  All the other rooms are perfectly habitable and clutter-free.  *cough*

Anyway..... if we are to transform the smallest bedroom into a dressing room, freeing up space in the main bedroom, there are a number of inter-dependent steps which have to take place in an pre-ordained order.

It's a bit like those little sliding tile picture puzzles where you have to move ALL of the tiles around in order to complete the picture. 

So, in order to decorate our bedroom we first have to empty the smallest bedroom WITHOUT cluttering up all the other rooms in the house with stuff we don't know what to do with.  We have taken a solemn oath that ANYTHING we don't want or need will be -

• Offered to friends and relatives
• Taken to charity shops
• Freecycled
• Taken to the recycling unit

I'm sure you will agree that's a damn fine plan.  And it is.  

However, that small bedroom seems to be at the centre of some sort of alien energy vortex. I went upstairs earlier completely determined to get right in there and sort it out.

No shilly-shallying.

No prevarication.

No sloping off for displacement activity.

Just straight in and tackle it, methodically and ruthlessly.

However, as soon as I set foot in there, and stood, gazing around at the piles of books, files, boxes, more boxes, more books...... I just felt all the energy and determination drain out of me and disappear into the ether.

This has happened every time.  The best I've ever managed in the past year has been to stir it a bit with a stick while I was trying to reach something I needed which was right at the back.

Hence the stick.

*sigh*

Not today however.  

I'm pleased to report that we have MADE A START.  There's still a long way to go but we now have several piles of stuff in the dining room, designated as recycling, or freecycling, or charity shop.

Now that we've started to make a mess it will be easier (I hope) to carry on, and do a bit each day.  As I said, it is a very small room but it does seem capable of holding an inordinate amount of stuff.  Which bears out my alien vortex theory.

Needless to say, I haven't just been making a mess upstairs and in the dining room.  I've also been having a clearout in the workroom, preparatory to relocating some of the work-related stuff from the bedroom, so there's a mess in there too.

 However, the good thing about having a clearout is you find stuff you didn't even know you had.

Such as......

I don't know what possessed me to buy this.  It was only £1 in a charity shop and it must have seemed like a good idea at the time.  It's still sealed so I haven't had a chance to peruse the instruction booklet, CD of tap dance music, or see if the heel and toe taps will glue onto my slippers.  However, the box assures me that in no time I'll be skipping the light fantastic just like Ginger Rogers.

Yeah..... right!