Saturday, March 1, 2014

A Life Full of Chotchskies

It's month 3 into the foreverwinter and I'm starting to feel swallowed by the indoors. February and March are difficult months for me, historically filled with low moments and memories of loved ones lost. Cold, dark, snow covered winters make these months even harder. And lately I feel as though I'm drowning in my own home.

Drowning in laundry. Drowning in dust. Drowning in dishes especially. (Oh, you'll see.) My wonderful new bath towels cover the upstairs bathroom with a never ending layer of navy blue fuzz. I can't seem to keep up with the mess. I'm vacuuming twice as much as I used to. (Where does the dirt come from? I haven't seen much of the ground the last couple months!) Two people make so much more of a mess than one. Not that Stan doesn't pull his weight in work, he does. But when both of us are at work all day and then come home... who wants to do dishes? Not us. Sitting sounds better. We'll do dinner on the couch so we aren't distracted by the mountains of dirty pyrex lunch containers.

So the mess feels heavy and never-ending. And right now, I think perhaps my own eclectic style is working against me. My home is jampacked full of dust-gathering chotchskies.

I went around and took pictures of my decorative clutter. Looking at them all together like this has a multiplying effect. In real life, between each of these vignettes and collections there's feet of white apartment walls. Still, am I overdoing it?

Featuring: A bottle painted by the owner of my college watering hole and a panda drink.

Featuring: antique grinder and juicer wedding gifts and a yellow rose from...what?

Featuring: old Christmas candy no one wants and a duck succulent.

Featuring: Many candles. Well, this is functional at least.

Featuring: Coasters a-plenty and overflow books. 

Featuring: Slowly disappearing candy canes, a wedding terrarium, and a child's accordion, of course.

Featuring: Too many shades on a broken clock.

Featuring: A cabinet of chotchkies I don't have surfaces for. And 200 DVDS.

Featuring: My college i.d., tiny plastic cat eye glasses, wine corks, dream catcher.

And as I look at the pictures again, I know I'd be sad to part with the items making up the clutter. Each represents some moment in Sarah-history worth remembering. A friend's visit, a first date, a music show, a school fundraiser. Perhaps when the snow stops flying, I may do a quick prune. But I'm not ready to declutter totally yet.

The same things that I love about my home in the summer are driving me nuts in the winter. I know with an ounce of perspective and a few minutes of daylight, things will sort themselves out. Soon, there will be warmth and newness and flowers to plant beside our doormat. Come real soon, spring. I'm so ready for your yearly visit.

Until then, I guess I'll just try to do the dishes more regularly. Because there's nothing positive to say about this clutter.

Featuring: Yuck.
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