Ah, cleaning.

The house is starting to look pretty good but my room hasn't even been touched yet, le sigh.  I just finished up the living room - dusted, swept, random bits of stuff picked up - identified and then delivered to whoever it belonged to, carpet put back down, some light rearranging.  No, I mean that literally.  I rearranged the lights.

Next is the bathtub, sink and toilet since Todd attacked the bathroom floor yesterday.  And then the bedroom.  *groan*  Will take a ten minute break, though, to enjoy a glass of pomegranate lemonade (nggh) and maybe flip through my book.  It's taking longer than normal for me to get through it because of the style of language that the writer decided to use.  Not a bad book but one that I'll get the sequal only once it's in actual paperback and not the inbetween hard cover and paperback that this was in.

I swear I'm tired of having to take days to clean the house - I'm going to try for once a week because then it means it doesn't take forever.

Letting Go

I moved a lot while I was growing up. My folks even started early, moving with me for the first time when I was just over a year old; we went from Scotland back to the States once my mom's tour of duty was over and she was out of the navy for good. My dad had finished his up before she did. From there, we moseyed around the states (Pennsylvania, Georgia, Virginia) before we made for overseas again.

Cyprus. The Philippians. Back to the States were we bounced from DC to Maryland and then to Virginia. Then back over for what would be the last overseas tour - for the kids, anyway. Switzerland. God, I was a lucky teenager. Finally back to Virginia. Then college moves and then I moved out - we moved, as a roommate unit, a year after I moved in. After that dissolved, I moved here.

You end up talking to other government or military brats over the years or those who just moved around a lot. Two types of people seem to emerge from years of packing, shifting around and unpacking. Pack rats or those who detest stuff.

Generally, I fall under the second category. I don't like to hold onto things that I don't need (and the fact that I have a basement full of stuff is driving me nuts right now) and if something doesn't have a place, then I don't want it. I don't keep birthday cards or letters or anything like that for longer than a few months - my room gets messy because I'm not tidy but not because I generally have too much stuff and not enough space. Though that does happen because I do buy things.

The great exception to this general rule? Books. One of these days, I want an entire room devoted to my books - walls and walls of them. Right now, I just don't have a free room, or really, enough books to do that. Moving books is a pain in the butt but I hate giving up books.

Even if I detest the book.

The every few months or so bookswap with the local folks will help with that, I think. As will paperbackswap.com. It's an awesome site and I recommend people going there (link below - if you decide to sign up, please put my email, jen.watkins@gmail.com as the one who recommended it to you). Basically, you put up books that you're willing to mail out to people and when you do, you get a credit per book in order to get another book.

So for every book I give, I have the chance of filling that slot. It's making this whole getting rid of my awful books a lot easier. I don't even like them but I like having them. It's why the allure of the library has dropped - not only do I find it hard, especially in this county for some reason, to find what I like but then I have to give them back. *whine*

But. Yes. Click on the link and take a gander. It's an awesome place.