The Monkey On My Back....

Time to tackle it head on......

I have mentioned in previous posts that I was married before.  My late husband passed away 7 years ago due to complications from Cancer.  Well, 5 years ago my current husband and I moved into our new home.  And that's where this story begins.....

5 years ago my goal was to move into our current home before that Christmas.  I wanted to spend THAT Christmas in our new home.  Well, it was a tight deadline, we moved in just before Christmas.  All of the stuff from the old house that we didn't need in our new house was piled in the basement.  Along with my late husbands belongings and tons of photo albums.  For years this "mess" has tortured me and every time I thought I was going to tackle the clean up I would get overwhelmed and bury my head back in the sand.  Well, this summer I had had enough of burying my head in the sand.  It was time to tackle that "mess" head on and clean it up.  3 days it took me to sort through most of the stuff, store my late husband's belongings in a safe place and clean up.....wow, what a space I have created!

I also mentioned in previous posts that I am working on losing weight.  Well, I finally have a work out area again.  In the old house I had a spare room turned into a work out room, I missed that convenience.  When I finally made up my mind to tackle the "mess" I discussed turning the area into a work out area with my husband.  I told him "it's my reward after all the work is done, so if I don't finish my project we don't turn it into a work out area".  I needed him to know I was not getting my reward if I didn't complete the task so I had myself and him to keep me accountable.  

There is still work to be done, boxes of MY old clothes to go through, most of which I will probably just donate to charity.  Today I am throwing a chicken in the oven to roast while I tackle more clean up.  This project is much easier than what I tackled a month or so ago.  This clean up is to stack what we're saving or what needs to be sorted through ie: our junk drawer stuff that contains everything from nuts and bolts to string and odd parts from whatever they used to belong to......  The purpose of this next clean up is to make my son a nice play area beside my lovely work out area!  I picked up a bowling set at a flea market for $2, an old fashioned heavy one, one that was made sturdy and built to last, not like the flimsy disposable stuff you buy now days.  My plan is to make him a nice bowling lane with his foam mats.  It feels good to have turned a space that has tortured me for years into a fun play area for him and for me.

I considered taking "before" pictures but decided I didn't need a reminder of what the basement used to look like.  That is burned in  my memory and I hope to forget it some day.  This clean up was about moving forward, getting organized and facing what needed to be thrown out.  Here is an after photo but before my second attack at organizing it into a smaller area and making an area for my son to play while I'm exercising:

And this is after another afternoon of organizing....

I'm about 80% finished with the sorting, the boxes of clothing turned out not to be as easy as I thought.  I assumed most of it would go to charity but it appears most of it may be stuff I'd want to keep....so that means going through my dresser, cleaning that out to make room for the others......It's a big project but I'm glad I've got a good start on it.  I wish I had done this years ago but you cannot turn back time.  I had to get the courage to tackle the memories and I did it and it feels great!

'til next time!