I awoke this morning to winter’s (hopefully) final hurrah. The snow drifting passed my windows, the cloudy weather, and the wind are making it hard to stay awake and focused. Winter always seems to slow down our thoughts and ambition. We fall prey to a sort of hibernation and routine becomes all we need. Now that I’ve had a taste of Spring my blood is boiling, I’m fired up and ready to tear the whole world apart and put it back in order.
Yesterday I ferociously attacked my guest bathroom. In my own defense I was provoked. The counter was covered with make-up products out of their place, magazines trooped in by my husband, and unnecessary knickknacks I had once put out thinking they might “look nice.” I was exhilarating to remove stuff, clutter, and junk. I was so inspired I pulled out all the drawers from the cabinets in the bathroom and emptied them of anything I wasn’t going to use. Believe it or not I filled up the tall kitchen trashcan and had to empty it and start gain. In the end I had 2 bags to take out to the curb and a much nicer bathroom to share with my guests. All that empty space sets off the fact that the paint on the walls is dingy and needs to be redone. C'est la vie, no?
I don’t always dive head long into Spring cleaning though. Sometimes I have to creep up on it and take it by surprise. I usually start by sorting things into piles one for giveaway, another marked return to sender, another for rubbish, and the last and most dreaded pile-for sale. This has always been tricky for me. Most of the time it is books, CDs, DVDs, or computer games. All of these I can take down to my local used bookstore and trade in for cash and credit at the store. This is great since I recycle books in and out regularly I always have credit and I don’t need cash to get that book I can’t find online, or at the mall.
Where this has gotten tricky lately are books that aren’t easily traded. I have disbanded my role-playing game sets and so those guides need to go to a good home, but the used book store isn’t it. I will be lucky to make back ⅓ of the value and few “gamers” go to that store to retrieve manuals. Now if I’m going to see these off to an appreciative audience I’m going to have to try to sell...online! For some items this may mean popping over to Amazon.com to peddle my wares. For other items I may have to venture over to EBay. I don’t know why this is more intimidating, but I just don’t feel familiar or comfortable with the pace. All the best sketch comedies paint EBay as a cutthroat market for our unwanted junk. I feel guilty selling part of my life online. It makes me feel odd having a part of myself out there for others to browse. I also feel guilty because I don't want the item anymore, but here I am enticing someone else to come and buy what I feel is a useless item. I'm sure they will treasure it as I did, at least for a while. With a mountain of items needing to be sold: this weekend I will take the plunge. Wish me luck, friends.
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