Recovering Pack Rat

Its true. I admit it. I WAS a pack rat (ok some things I still am!)

I typically go through my annual 'clean the house out' frenzy in February when the day time temps never seem to get above ZERO here. But this year I did it early for several reasons. (we won't get into them here).

My clean the house out frenzy typically starts with just the bathroom and then briskly encompasses more and more rooms so that by day 3 of this frenzy it really looks like one.....one room is clean, but then to clean the next you have to put the stuff BACK in the room you just cleaned.

To make it easy on my pack ratting, and cleaning......I now have new rules:
1. Empty out entire room/closet/cupboard
2. scrub/wipe/clean every room...walls...ceilings...floors
3. Only bring back items into room that are required (toaster to the kitchen, garbage can to the bathroom, etc)
4. Accessorize (this takes me just moments as I don't tend to have many knick knack crap...its more to dust!)
5. Any item (electronics,appliances,clothing,papers) that have not been used in the past 12 months needs to be given away, thrown away or burned. This does not include items such as Tupperware or sleeping bags that COULD be needed at any given moment.

I have stuck to this for the past 6 years. I lived in large 2 or 3 bedroom apartments in college and didn't want to have a bunch of crap to bring home to the farm every summer so I didn't ever really have a lot of junk in my apartments...EASIER TO CLEAN THAT WAY!

Now in a 6 bedroom house with just me and the 5 dogs and 1 parakeet...I have TONS of room to be an amazing pack rat. I will however NEVER succumb to this terrible disease again! AMEN!

The four bedrooms upstairs consist of the following essential items (No need to fill their closets with more junk I don't need):
1. bed
2. bed stand/lamp
3. garbage can
4. alarm clock
5. chair
6. dresser

That's all one really needs besides linens for the bed which are washed fresh before any visitors arrive and again immediately (not kidding) after they leave.

The main floor consists of two bedrooms (My(I mean the dogs)bedroom, and the office which has an air mattress in it for visitors), two large living rooms, a large old farmhouse kitchen, bathroom and laundry room. Too many closets to count and lots of wall space for shelves and other things.....truly a pack rats dream home.

I tell myself I like the modern look....simple, clean, streamlined...basically very empty (again way easy to clean and in record time too!)

The only room that is really really terrible is my office. Each year I end up with piles of magazines, paperwork, cards, photos, etc and I keep throwing and throwing out stuff. Tonight alone I took 2 huge boxes of magazines to the wood stove to burn and three bags of papers to the recycle place. I live alone and still make all this mess. Its ridiculous.

Need to get ready for the big remodel and the Black Tie Affair/Wine and Cheese party coming up in three weekends! If you didn't get the invite via face book or MSSBO, and you want more info...let me know! All my blogger friends are invited too!