Spring Cleaning

I ran into a tipping point last week. I'd gone shopping to replace my walking shoes, and since they were on sale, I bought two new pairs, what the heck. I also picked up new shoes for my tone class; the walking shoes allow too much lateral movement and are too cushy for correct foot placement when lifting weights, and I've been having trouble with my knees. (I DO long for the days when I ran around all the time in a pair of moccasins and wore them until there was a hole in the leather bottoms of the shoes - yes, in winter in Minnesota. I was WAY cool. - and my feet had no complaints.)

I somewhat resignedly brought my haul home, and up to my closet. I took one look at the room and realized that until and unless I did some reorganizing, the boxes were going to have to sit in the middle of the floor. *sigh*

It was time and past time to clean. When I want to tidy up for company I have a habit of picking up the things lying about and shoving them into the nearest available cranny, figuring I'll find them proper homes later. It's then a matter of out of sight, out of mind, until I reach the point, as I did last week, where all the crannies are full of miscellaneous homeless items, and proper homes for things can't be found because the proper storage space is interspersed with items that really need to be on their way out the door.

So, I picked a free afternoon, and started emptying shelves and going through bins. I was in the proper frame of mind, and was able to convince myself to get rid of the extra sets of sheets, and, AND, the almost worn-out socks. (I really don't know why part of me thinks it is necessary to keep socks until they develop actual holes. Once they get see-through spots on the toes and heels, I don't wear them any more anyways.)

My closet isn't THAT big, and just two hours later, all the things had homes. The back bedroom held a stack of giveaway stuff, and I had an old hamper filled with items that had reached the end of their useful lifespan, ready for the trash.

The next morning, I walked in the room, looked around, and something in me breathed a bit more easily. By putting my closet in proper order, I'd also tidied up something inside of me. For me, letting go of things which once held value but now no longer serve me leaves room for growth. 

And new shoes.