The Accumulation of Years

Until I agreed to host my girlfriend at my apartment, I did not realize how much I had accumulated over the years. With the exception of the past year (from November 2004 through about August 2005), I have generally been a neat and tidy person. My mother got me in the habit of doing cleaning every weekend as a child, and, except for that period, I have maintained that habit. I by no means mean that you would not find piles here and there, but everything was kept tidy, the floor was vacuumed, the bathroom clean, things dusted, etc. If you stopped by on a Saturday, the place tended to be the worst because I usually designate Sunday as my cleaning day.

I did not realize either how much stuff I owned or how single-person oriented where I lived was until I felt the need to get the apartment “in shape” for her visit. The cleaning started a few months ago and has been going non-stop since. I have thrown away volumes of stuff; rid myself of one 4-drawer filing cabinet and another 4-shelf shelving unit full of stuff; and I have cleared half of the unwanted stuff out of my bedroom closet and two large boxes of stuff out of the front closet.

And yet, every time I turn around, I see something that looks like I have not even touched it. It is ridiculously frustrating.

I will not even mention the damage the two years my cat was sick caused, or the constant upkeep the shedding and other pet-ownership issues still cause.

The thing that makes this the most frustrating is that most of this accumulation and disrepair happened during that year. I basically said to myself, ‘I’m going to be single forever, so why do I bust my hump to keep everything so tidy? Let it go!’ And I did. Until then, I kept everything in fairly organized locations and, while I recognized I was a packrat, I used a variety of methods not to be overwhelmed by the quantity of stuff I owned and continued to accumulate.

In just that one year “off” all that organization was destroyed. So, now it is days until I pick her up at the airport and I feel like I am still so far behind. I do not feel like she will be seeing the “real me”—the one that has kept things fairly neat and tidy for most of my life, and she will be overwhelmed by the “me” that came about in that one off year.

I am now basically down to needing to clean the bar top in the kitchen, finish tidying the front-room book case, clean one of the bedroom book cases, and clear the donate-worthy items out of the kitchen. I feel like the place will be close to what I want her to see after I complete those tasks (along with the generic vacuuming and dusting that needs constant attention).

I have all of that to do tonight and Thursday evenings (after 8 pm), because I pick her up from LAX Friday evening. Wednesday evening is bowling night, so I can only get minimal cleaning done then. Well, at least, not without seriously bothering my neighbors, which I try not to do.

The end result of this will be refreshing. My apartment already feels a little bigger having so much stuff gone. It will be easier to maintain and I have plans in place for all the incoming stuff as well. Plus, hopefully the future holds a move by one (me to Canada) or both of us (to a bigger place together). At which time the cleaning I do now will be even more beneficial, as I will not have as much stuff to go through or get rid of before I go.

Miles to go before I sleep!