Day 85

Day 85:

Have you ever walked into a room and said to yourself "Hmm, this room is a total mess."? It's very likely you've done this at some point, and probably do it fairly frequently. There are many reasons why a room can be messy; it could've been used for a gathering, you could be having a clear-out, or mess could have quietly accumulated over time. Mess can land suddenly and take up your whole evening, or slide stealthily along the kitchen or the bedroom. However, not all mess is created equally. While you can always say "Yes, this floor is made out of floor," you cannot always say "Yes, this mess is made out of mess." If your dining room is strewn with burst crackers, washing up and torn up wrapping paper after hosting a family Christmas, then your mess is made out of mess. Meanwhile, if your mess is made up of your wardrobe that you are sorting, or toys or belongings that are important to you, then the mess is made out of your stuff. This may sound insignificant, but we tackle messes in very different ways, depending on what sort of mess they are.

If it's just rubbish that's taking up your space, then the procedure is very simple: pick up all the stuff, throw it into black bags, and chuck it in the bin. If there is a lot, then maybe you'll need a trip to the tip, and there will likely be some recycling to do separately, but it's a fairly regular chore and shouldn't take up too much time. Unfortunately, dealing with messes that are made up of your stuff can get more complicated. Obviously, you don't want to just indiscriminately throw away your stuff, because it's yours. So, you sort through it, perhaps making piles of 'keep', 'charity shop', or 'throw away', for example. This takes a while in itself, but then you have to act on the piles you have created. You need to do a bin/tip run for the 'throw away' pile, visit the charity shop for the 'charity shop' pile, and find new homes for the stuff in the 'keep' pile. This is a long, dull and sometimes daunting task. As a result, it can seem much easier to simply move things around enough until you have a good amount of space. You may also start to do the task, but end up making your 'keep' pile larger than you would like to try and get through everything. Over time, this can happen again, and again, and again, until so many things have been pushed to the side, that there isn't any more room for the things you want to keep...

I'm aware that I've covered this topic a few times now, but it keeps encroaching on my thoughts, time and space. I went into the loft today to fetch the Christmas decorations (at a reasonably early time of year, for once). Annoyingly, it was right at the back, so we had to haul down half of the rest of the loft in order to get to it. As a result, the pile of mess in my room is now so high, that it is currently blocking the light-fitting. With that in mind, it looks like I'm going to need to make some piles. But, there is no space for the piles. It looks like I'll have to make them out on the landing...

I'll see you tomorrow, if I can still get to my computer :) :(