Labor

As much as I would like my summer to fade into a blur of leisure, my inner guilt gibbon makes sure that I don't succumb to such tomfoolery. Last summer I started a Treadmill Journal in an attempt to stay focused and productive. It had a checklist of categories that I used to stay disciplined each day. This year I'm feeling a little less structured so I'm going to focus on only one category, the Distasteful Task. Each day I am making myself finish one job that I find repugnant. Unfortunately or fortunately, there is no end of such tasks at my house.

I usually begin with the one that I find most disgusting, cleaning the entryway closet. It is a multi-shelved repository for all the flotsam and jetsam two people accumulate throughout a year's worth of sharing space. It holds everything from light bulbs to batteries to paper plates to coats to bird seed to brooms to mittens. You get the idea. It's a miscellaneous mosh pit. I'm happy to report that I've successfully pulled every single item out of its clutches and tossed, cleaned or reorganized each piece, promising not to be such a pig from now on.

Next I moved on to the bedrooms. Last year I discovered a corner behind a closet door that looked like blue carpet (it should be beige). Who knew that a year without vacuuming behind a closet door causes carpet to take on a dusty skyglow?  This year I found no such hue so at least I kept one of my piggy promises. There were still plenty of cobwebs and dust bunnies to keep my vacuum cleaner wailing.

The bathroom was next in the line of fire. I lulled myself into thinking it would be a snap as it's one room that gets a going over each week (sort of). My bravado lasted only until I opened the bathroom cupboard. Stray Q-tips, empty prescription boxes, hotel shampoo bottles and old sunscreen stared at me with a "catch-me-if-you-can" attitude. No choice but to dig in. Each item had to pass the keep/toss/move test and fortunately, I was in a dumping mood so several items were sacrificed to the garbage gods.  Time to part with products that expired in '05.

I marched onward to the bookcase filled with a jumble of treasures, written and otherwise. My goal was to remove and dust all items, wash the shelves and toss any unloved items. Good idea. Bad match. It was like asking a junkie to clean a pharmacy. The task shouldn't have taken as long as it did but I found myself perusing through forgotten books, looking for favorite recipes, identifying branches in my family tree and talking to pictures of loved ones (creepy, I know). I cannot say the cleaning task was enjoyable but the trip down memory lane was a bonus. Sadly, I was unable to part with much from my bookcase so I will be touching the same stuff next year. Not all bad.

My carrot at the end of each cleaning task has been reading time so you are going to have to excuse me because I have a really good book that is calling my name. Look out sock drawer. You're going down.