Thursday, May 16, 2013

Recollections of Cleaning

It's that time of year again, and you know what I'm talking about, SPRING CLEANING! I guess for us Edmontonians, Spring is always delayed, so cleaning in May is not late at all if I do justify it myself.

So my latest gig is cleaning my room and I know my last blog post about this was in 2011 here, which means I haven't done a major clean up since then. Okay that sounds kind of gross (like imagine the dust, but I promise my room isn't dirty, it just not as clean as it should be-just kidding, minor cleaning has been attempted at). Rereading that blog post, I still feel there are so many stories told from my room. I'm still in the process of reorganizing and cleaning everything, but I've noticed how much has changed in the span of two years. The change is not necessarily my room itself, well the only physical change is that I've obtained more stuff, but I catch my thought process and how I go about making decisions now compared to then. It's amazes me how I can visually reflect  and acknowledge that I've grown up judging by the things occupying my room. Not to add that my taste has taken a 180 on me as well.

Take my stash of cute pencils, lead pencils and pens I have (even some that don't even work but I still choose to keep) hoarded over my grade school and early uni years, imagine the money that could've been saved! Add on the amount of pencil cases I have (all in the name of cute) and it gets ridiculous. Also, that stash of cell phone charms, key rings, pins, and more- they're such cheap quality and fall apart so easily, yet because of the cute factor, I have a few (small) boxes full of them.  I still think they're cute (this reminds me of the joke someone made about what makes things cute to girls), but that's besides the point. I just realize I have a collection of too many things I don't care too much for now. What to do with them right? Perhaps I should keep it in storage and pass it on to the next gen? ha!

A part of me would like to just trash some of these things (as some of these things aren't even in one piece), but another part of me likes to hold on to them as a piece of childhood memory. The former makes me feel wasteful and the latter makes me feel I will end up in the same place the next time I clean. I'm reminded of how my mom use to tell me to not buy so much of these "things" and the times my grandma would share stories of how my auntie was just like me when she was my age, but when she got older, she donated all her stuff animals etc. I should've taken wisdom from my elders more seriously, but I guess some parts of life are just meant to be lived through and learned on your own. The up side is that I have more storage space in my room, the down side is, I have yet to figure out how to effectively deal with the outdated things of my life.

I haven't started on my closet yet, and that may be another story in itself, but I find clothing much easier to deal with. I tend to set an unwritten rule for myself that if the garment doesn't fit or I haven't worn it in a year (exception: seasonal items) it goes to donation. Nowadays though, with my refashioning phase going on, I've been coming up with new ways to make things wearable or into a whole new piece that I would wear. Now the decision is to donate or to remake? Even then, just browsing through my closet, I can visually see my style change. I use to be all about, you can probably guess it, cute clothes, which I can't even come up with a description of what that would be, it comes to show that I've outgrown it (which may not be a bad thing at all). 

My room itself, well, if you walked into it, without a doubt, the Sanrio bedsheets and comforter, Disney light cover, touches of pink, line up of stuff animals large and small-signify the room of a young girl. To be honest, the structure and design of my room hasn't changed one bit other than the addition of a shelf over the years. I've never thought about changing it up drastically, but lately, I've had a growing desire to match it to who I am now, and not when I was five.

Cleaning can be such an insightful and self learning experience! Never thought right?!


Much has changed. Much has got to go. Much has left for me to grow.



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