Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Sound the Alarm




Last week our burglar alarm at home went off; an event that brought me home from work and a nice, big deputy to my driveway.  Fortunately it was a false alarm; something needs to be replaced in the alarm system and that’s being done today.

If there is anything more unnerving than having a stranger go through your house, from top to bottom when you were not expecting company, I just don’t know what it might be.  As I waited in the kitchen (where the counter was littered with the remnants of breakfast) the deputy went through the other rooms that actually made the kitchen look tidy (honest officer, I was running late this morning).  I could have saved him the effort of checking the closets because not one of them would have had room for a burglar to hide in. (Just like Fibber McGhee, I always plan to clean out those closets) Actually, that spare bedroom has not been ransacked; that’s just the mess I made looking for a sweater this morning.  Oh…my…goodness!!



If you take the time to check it out in the dictionary, the definition of motivation is:  To give reason, incentive, enthusiasm or interest that causes a specific action or behavior.  To say that having this nice young man walk through my house was motivating would be an understatement.  The weekend arrived to find me motivated to clear the clutter and excess from the house.  I am thinking of it as my “less is more” awakening.

The weekend was a blur of me dumping dresser drawers, pulling things from closets and making trips to Goodwill.  I had not done this thorough a toss-out for quite some time, but the fear of being nominated for an episode of Hoarders kept me moving…or should I say ‘motivated’.

Clearing out a closet is rather like tearing pages from a scrapbook for me.  This is the dress I wore in Washington….here is a suit I bought on our trip to New Orleans….oh, I just can’t toss these sandals I bought in Florida (yes I can!)….ahhhhh, one of the children gave me this hand bag.   I could go on for pages, but suffice it to say I over came the voices in my head and kept tossing.

I wasn’t alone in my effort to get rid of stuff.  Larry was right in there cheering me on and dumping his own dresser drawers.  By the end of the day we were exhausted but feeling pretty good about all the clutter we had cleared away.  Next we’re taking on the basement and the garage; while that promises to be a much bigger project, I think we will make some real headway.  There just might be some usable and organized space in our future.

To think I owe this spring cleaning frenzy to a malfunctioning burglar alarm.  Go figure.  It’s probably just as well that I didn’t catch the name of the young officer who showed up in the driveway.  I’m pretty sure my husband would send him a thank you note if I had.   I just know if the alarm goes off again I will be sashaying through the house, whipping open closet doors like Vanna White introducing a vowel!

                                                                        Life is Good  

 

 

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