I'm enjoying my hot tea and Saturday morning reading, but I've already done something productive, which makes me happy. I've cleaned out the kitchen pantry! Our church food pantry is low, so I wanted to pull canned things to help restock that. In the process, I moved all the canned food down to a shelf I can reach easily and put the lighter things on the upper shelves I have to stretch to get to or use a folding stool. Things look better now and I have two boxes of food for church!
I have cleaned out most of the closets in the house since my husband died in August - some for obvious reasons like giving away his clothes, coats, shoes and other things I won't use but someone else can. Although sometimes it was sad, I mostly loved the act of separating his things and knowing how happy he would be that someone would be wearing or using them! Thanks to a friend, I even found someone who could wear his size 13 narrow shoes! And that nice man's wife wrote me a lovely thank you note, which was completely unexpected.
Anyway, back to the cleaning - I wonder why it makes us feel so good to clean a drawer or closet? It must have something to do with the basics - cleanliness, simplifying, organizing. My friends have laughed, as when they visit, the first thing I do is show them my new orderly closets! I am definitely a bit prideful about them, but hopefully heaven will have some closets that need organizing and this will play in my favor :) I also think that the good feelings come because the cleaning usually leads to giving, whether it's canned food, clothes, books, etc. And we all know the old adage "it's better to give than receive" is true, even if we don't understand why.
I still have one closet to straighten and it may be the most difficult, as it is the office supplies, tax records, etc. I won't be giving much of this away (who would want it?!) and just have to figure out how to make too much stuff fit in the space with some semblance of neatness! The other big job is going through the hundreds of CDs, deciding if I want the music on my iPod, and if so, copying the CDs to my Mac, and if not, thinking about who might want the music even if I don't. Randy's tastes ran the gamut in music and I enjoyed most of it, but I've spotted several CDs that I don't have a clue what they are. So, this last major project will involve a lot of music listening, which should be mostly pleasurable!
From previous straightening, I've got a box of beta and VHS tapes - some blank, some recorded and VHS and Beta VCRs. I'm wondering who could use these as well. If you have any ideas, please let me know. I really don't like to throw things away, as it seems such a waste and just clutters the landfills. I know of the Little Rock recycling of electronics, but hope to find somewhere that could actually use them. However, they may just be too much of a past technology and if so, I'll try and accept that!
I want to thank several of you for your supportive words about my writing. I enjoy doing it, but am gratified beyond words (almost!) to know that anything I have written is inspirational or encouraging or even enjoyable to those reading. Once again, it is better to give than to receive!
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