Odds-n-Ends

Various things to mention here pop up in the course of a day. Sometimes they aren't enough in and of themselves to warrant a whole entry. There's a parallel to my ongoing battle with housekeeping.

Whenever I'm having people over for dinner, or trying to get all the assorted clutter picked up so my bimonthly cleaning lady can actually get at surfaces to clean, I always run out of time or energy. At some point, I admit defeat, and get a laundry basket to put the last few items in, and stick it out of sight in the basement. I usually get around to putting all that back within a couple days, but by then the same or greater amount becomes freed from the "everything in it's place" and the process starts all over. I shouldn't take this personally; it's probably an obscure branch of physics I didn't bother learning about. Entropy of clutter. It's a corollary of the missing sock and charging dust rhino sciences. Like free-range laundry which can never be simulateously and completely washed, dried, folded and put away. Damn that laundry fairy! Can't everything just get clean and stay that way long enough for me to feel smug and take a deep breath? It's still something I strive for, when I'm not tilting at windmills and such.

Although our kitchen is too small for a junk drawer, we have a couple of cabinets that serve the same purpose. Much like the linen closet, that jettisons travel-size toiletries everytime I open it. It's a daily battle that usually has me muttering unflattering things under my breath. My mom refers to this phenomenon as "Fibber McGee's closet" which has been explained to me as part of a radio serial. I don't know why I put up with it. At this point, I should throw out half the stuff just to save myself the aggravation. My bathroom cabinet was the worst offender, sending me into diving saves as the trajectories of various health and beauty products ominously headed towards the toilet or waste basket. I've been attempting to use up the multiples of personal care products - finally the lavander bath salts from 12 years ago! Avon crap. I can't even remember when/where I got half this stuff. I needed to be okay with throwing out unopened bottles of this or that based on age or indifference. I am a believer in toner, but not a regular user of it, etc. I'm sure switching between shampoos is a good idea, but in practice I can't have 6 bottles in circulation. It doesn't matter how much I paid for this or that ridiculous beauty product; it's probably well past it's shelf-life. So a week ago, I purged all sorts of crap and now each time I open my bathroom cabinet, I still cringe in anticipation of an avalanche, and then I see how everything is neat and organized and sparse, and I have the smallest flush of triumph along with a sigh of relief. One has to appreciate the victories, no matter how paltry.