the "Clean House!" project

From the time I graduated high school until I moved to DC (again) a few years ago, I moved an average of once a year. When I lived in England during the blazingly glorious sunset of the dotcom boom, I moved my massive suitcases and accoutrement three times in five months, not counting the umpteen hotels my company shuffled me through as they looked for any decent housing at all in Central London (and yes, I know how incredibly lucky I was to have someone else foot the bill and I was downright religious about thanking God every day for the amazing time I was having. Really. I don't even know the last time I prayed that fervently and frequently, and that includes sweating through a few nasty semesters of grad school.)

However, I haven't moved in a couple years and the one plus to shifting your stuff around on a regular basis is knowing how much of it you have -- and getting sick of shifting it and therefore getting RID of some of it. In short, we have too much stuff in our house and I'm going hard-core. Over the next 9-12 months, I'm embarking on a little something I'm calling the "Clean House!" project.

The idea is simple: I'm going to tackle every single room, closet, desk, storage area, bookshelf, cubbyhole, box, chest, drawer, cupboard, and odd corner of our abode and get rid of junk, pass on stuff we don't use, dispose of things that no longer have meaning, sell stuff we no longer want that's valuable, recycle whenever possible. I'm going to follow William Morris' advice, which was to "have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

And yes, I'm keeping that exclamation point in the project name. It's somewhat high-school-girl-who-dots-her-i's-with-circles and smacks a tiny bit of Martha Stewart, but I'm pretty excited about it and I'm going to let that enthusiasm flag fly, baby! Maybe even break out the multiples!!!! WHOO-HOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

*whew* gotta switch that brand of cold medicine soon....

As I go, I'll try to post before and after pics, muse on the outcomes, and offer advice and tips if I have any. I'm trying to do a little bit every week, not kill myself in a massive 3-week blowout session. First up: the linen closet. Find your equivalent and feel free to clean along with me and comment. Go, Clean House!

Posted via email from kimbryant's posterous