I’ve been reading about Sarah and her 40 bags in 40 days for Lent project – the gist of which is to rehome (bin, recycle…) 40 bags of unwanted stuff during Lent. I don’t think the project started with Sarah, but I’ve certainly been motivated by what I’ve read on her blog! Her photo montage of how her bathroom looked after being decluttered made me sigh with delight…and envy….

This morning I’ve followed suit – and tackled the master bathroom. This isn’t very big in our house and I’m the only person who ever uses it as it doesn’t have a shower. I had sort of dismissed it up until now on the grounds that there wasn’t really anything there to throw away and it’s mine, therefore it’s pretty clean and tidy. Boy was I wrong! – as became apparent very soon after I started to scratch the surface. In the twinking of an eye I had a bag full of stuff , some of which made me really chuckle. Take for instance the surgical corset which I have kept for 20 years in case I have another lower back problem (but never thought to do anything with in January when I was hobbling around with a fractured spine!). This morning I tried it on!! That was a bit of a shock – as there was at least a 4 inch gap where it didn’t meet in the middle. Bin! I’m clearly never going to be that size ever again!

I also decided that things with smells I don’t like, gloopy face creams that make me feel sticky, elderly massage oils and heating pads that had been left a little too long in the over and smelled of burned rice or cherry stones or whatever it is they put in them, were history. Those things are never, ever going to be used – however guilty I feel about them. So out they all went.

And I’m as pleased as punch with the results, I really am. I have space. Everything is clean, fresh and attractive. I have achieved the goal – simplicity. It is incredible what a pick-me-up such a little change can make. It didn’t cost anything – other than the price of the bin bag – and I’ve been walking by and admiring what I’ve achieved ever since I got through.

While I’m on the perfect Swiss housewife theme, here is the magic window cleaning product as so many of you asked about it:

It seems to be a Swiss one and can only be bought by mail order. It’s rather pricey, but should last me the rest of my lifetime as I only need two drops at a time. It’s probably not generally available for most of you. I did get a couple of other great tips on windows though – Stephanie in France uses baby wipes and Pam in Las Vegas swears by Woolite in cold water! I’ve never tried either of those – but hey, I’m up for anything that works!!

It made me feel somehow relieved that most other people have the same problem with windows that I do – less of a hopeless housewife, you know. I do think that someone needs to come up with a non-smearing window – you could make a fortune!

Phew. I think that’s more than enough on the cleaning theme. It makes me tired just to think about it and I really don’t want you to think that my life is fixated on cleaning. How sad would that be? But I am quite taken with having more simplicity and less clutter in my life. It’s uplifting and I’m hoping for a knock-on effect on both creativity and on my quality of life. That’s the dream anyway….

Now I need to do some stitching to recover!

Helen

This entry was posted on Friday, March 11th, 2011 at 11:53 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.