Satisfaction

I did not study this morning - despite Wombat having not napped at all yesterday, and my not getting anything done. I did not write the entry on traditions for Scribbit's June Write Away Contest that I had planned. I did not have to go in to Wombat, even once - he slept the whole night straight through (having had no naps...) I did not even waste the morning reading blogs.

Instead, I tidied.

My family would not believe this, but I have an immense desire for a nice house - to have a place for everything, and everything in its place. That is so far from my reality that I can hear my sister laughing so hard she almost goes into early labour (in fact, I can hear her through several hours of time and over 800kms of distance).

It all started when I remembered I have an important form to fill out that MUST be posted on Thursday, and that I will need to get Yeti to add his information to it tomorrow. I was happily filling in my part at 4am when I realised I needed a detail from another document. I started looking for it in the small cardboard box that is my current "important documents & waiting to file" storage place. The box was almost full, and an inordinate amount of brochures and other rubbish had crept in, so I started to sort it out. Once I started, I couldn't stop.

You see, once I'd pulled all the rubbish out of the box (and found the documents I wanted) I was left with a pile of rubbish. I went to put it in my desk bin (a plastic bag), and realised it was full to overflowing, and I hadn't emptied it in weeks because I was waiting to sort out the garbage from the paper. So I did that. And then I looked at my desk and realised half the paper on it could also go in the recycling, so I started on that.

Every so often I would stop, filled with a feeling of accomplishment, and then my shoulders would sag as I looked around and realised how much more clutter there was still to deal with.

Two hours later, I am finally finished. My desk area may not be clean, but at least it is neat - I can see the layers of dust, instead of vaguely believing they exist under the piles of paper (lol, now I can see Scribbit shuddering - all the way from Alaska).

All the random sewing supplies that were scattered around are in a bag on the floor and I have a box of "stuff" to put back into the bedroom. I have found Wombat's missing shoe, and some jewellery I haven't seen for over six months. Paperclips, erasers, post it notes, stickers, pencils, drawing pins, hair ties, pens and all the things I use on a daily basis now have their own separate jars instead of overflowing from miscellaneous bowls. I have taken two bags of paper and one of garbage out and put them in their respective bins.

I still haven't finished filling out that form... the bill of costs I started preparing two days ago for my tutorial is still staring accusingly at me from the bar at the bottom of my screen... Wombat is about to wake up any minute and I need to go and feed the chooks... but despite it all, I feel happy.

Of course, I have done this before... many times. I dread the thought of doing it again, but I know I will - over and over. To do otherwise, I would have to make decluttering a habit. I intend to do so, but it is only one of a thousand new habits I am dreaming of... and that's a topic for another day...

Hey, now that I have cleaned up a bit, I might actually get the chance to give Wombat to his Daddy for an hour and VACUUM... wooohoooooo!