Write 31 Days - Seasons

What is it about a change in seasons that inspires the inner neat freak lurking somewhere within each of us?  I mean, as soon as the first fading leaf falls, or the earliest blossom pokes its head up from the perennial bed, the most eager organizers are already rearranging closets to bring the appropriate clothes within easy reach for current temperatures.

It's a change in seasons of a different kind when a family goes through the chore to clear rooms of clutter and streamline their household possessions to relocate to a new home.

I'm experiencing the beginning of a new season, a new stage in life.  College is in full swing for our youngest kids, and our home now has a very different feel.  For the first time in a long time I'm having the urge to straighten and purge and sanitize and completely reorder our home. From floor to ceiling. Wall to wall.  I'm getting the sense that no closet, cabinet, or drawer will be safe.  Think "Clean Sweep," the TLC series from about ten years back.

The only problem I see with this new desire to reorganize everything in sight is the fact that I'll have to face some feelings that are currently residing in the "denial" slot in my mental card catalog.

Take the linen closet in the hallway outside the kids' bedrooms, for example. When we moved into this house, we were knee high in laundry generated by four busy kids and their constant need to change in and out of school clothes, sports uniforms, outfits for playing dress-up, and the inevitable assortment of clean clothes that managed to find themselves back in the laundry basket instead of the dresser drawer. (Nearly every mother I've ever met claims this same phenomenon happens at her house.).

Here is how that closet looks today:

Apparently I'm in denial that three baskets for sorting never-ending loads of lights, darks, and brights are no longer necessary in this house.  At least not within a short toss from the nearby bedroom doors. No one is living in those bedrooms.  Empty bedrooms do not need convenient containers for dirty clothes.

The way I figure, the sooner I do away with this system we used with our busy family of six, the sooner I'll be able to utilize the new-found prime storage space.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I'm definitely better at denial, or at least procrastination, than I am at seizing an obvious opportunity. That's okay. Those empty bedrooms are enough of a change for now. Our uncluttered, organized spaces will come in time.