I can’t start any real spring cleaning or planting yet, but I can think about it…..
I AM MOVING into Spring Cleaning mode. Slowly.
Slowly because major reconstruction at our apartment complex, to fix and original builder’s shoddy work from 10 years ago, is moving past its first-year anniversary, and as it impacts my apartment, Month 8.
Because it involves stripping up my patio, taking off siding, putting in a new door, etc. etc. etc. everything that once was on my patio is now in my living room and that makes any sort of cleaning, changing of décor impossible.
In the place of real work I am making a plan, a list.
- This morning I replaced the shower caddy that has hung from the shower head for a year with a pole model that braces itself between the tub and ceiling. A small thing but an improvement.
- I am looking at paint hues. My apartment is a drab institutional off-white. I am going to have someone (not me) paint accent walls. I am choosing Southwest colors. I find New Mexico to be overwhelmingly spiritual. Not in a religious way but in a “mysteries of the Universe” way.
- I am going to get rid of just about all my clothing. A lot of is worn and some I never wear. With all that is happening in this country there are more and more people in need. My plan is to replace what I have with much less. If I do laundry every four or five days I don’t need that much.
- I am going to clean out mind and body. This winter, with abnormal snow, cold and darkness and my wife continuing her one-way slide into more deep dementia, I have don’t little or nothing to nurture mind and body. Time to get back into the gym and sensible eating.
- I will start thinking flowers. I don’t know when the outside work will be done – could be 10 days or six weeks. I cannot find a pattern to the work. So be it. I have my flower boxes and patio furniture stacked in my living room, stashed in closets. Parts of my apartment look like an episode from a hoarder TV show. But they will move out one day so I am thinking about the sorts of plants I want to have coffee with in the morning.
- Clothing is not all that has piled up here and there. Much of it is stuff that once was a part of something and the something is gone. You probably do this, too. Power cords, recharging cords etc. Whatever they powered is gone but for some reason I thought the accoutrements would have future lives.
All this I plan to work on, but for now, I think I will take a nap.
Rich Heiland is a retired journalist and semi-retired consultant, trainer and public speaker. During his journalism career he was a reporter, editor, publisher, college instructor, part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team and a National Newspaper Association Columnist of the Year honoree. He lives in West Chester, PA and can be reached at [email protected].