Uh Oh

I'm in one of those moods. Who knows what exactly brings it on?

The Spouse will say that "the gland is secreting" but that really only applies to those times when I suddenly rearrange all the furniture in a room.

Today's mood is different. This is the mood that sends me into cupboards and drawers, tossing and organizing. It's the mood that results in 412 pounds of recycling and a pile of stuff on the parking strip with a sign that reads "Free", because I'm in such a mood that I don't even want to keep the culled stuff in a box in the garage for the next time that Community Services has a truck in my neighborhood.

I am in a mood to divest myself of stuff.

I'm not a clutter kind of girl. Never really have been. If I replace a pillow or can opener I toss the old one. I don't have shelves full of Hummels. My wardrobe is pared to basics that all go with each other. I don't have "fat clothes" or "5 more pounds off and I'll fit into these again" clothes. But even so, stuff accumulates. And when it gets to a certain point I have to deal with it. I like knowing that there isn't anything in the house that isn't useful or beautiful. Beautiful to me, anyway.

I have already cleaned out my Big Notebook of Organization, the one in which I keep things like volleyball schedules and grocery lists. I have tidied out the drawer where all the plastic storage containers live. Next stop is the coat closet and then I'm taking on the linen closet. After that will probably be the Detritus Drawer, the one in the kitchen where we keep hammers and rubber bands and half-used tubes of SuperGlue. That'll be reduced to essentials by noon. There may even be a session with The Child, wherein we try to reduce by half her 2 baskets of toys and general kid crap.

Sometimes I think my organizational fits are a response to world events...trying to make order when chaos swirls all around. Maybe it's just the 10 degree shift in the weather that has brought a cool, cloudy morning. Or maybe it's the passage I read this morning in a book called A Well-Kept Home:Household Traditions and Simple Secrets from a French Grandmother by Laura Fronty and Yves Duronsoy. (Edy and Renee, I think you would both love this book. You would, too, Jonathan). Anyhoo, here's the quote:

"I will describe her life and her home to you as I remember it: the rooms where life was lived; the bedrooms drenched with sunlight in the morning; the floors festooned with apricot, red and ochre Oriental rugs inherited from her mother-in-law, which seemed to absorb the light and retain the heat despite their age. There were books, dried flowers and cushions inspired by the colors of Matisse; and objects sparkling with an authenticity that, had they been owned by an ancient community, would have been placed in graves for the next life: crystal dice, bits of stag antlers, amber pearls, boxes, sculptures, wooden balls..."

James Salter, Un Bonheur Parfait (Perfect Happiness)

Of course, I think bits of stag antler would be nasty and I would never have dried flowers because they are dust-catching, moldering things. I prefer my flowers fresh. But you get the idea.