When the urge to purge hits, I don’t argue.
“What are you avoiding?” my good friend asked, and her question was legit. Who empties out sock drawers and those scary places under sinks unless there are taxes waiting to be paid or chapters waiting to be written?
I fessed up and made a decision I hadn’t anticipated. After watering the grass and pruning the flowers and hosing down the house (so many spider webs this year) and taking out the recycling, I marched to our bathroom, where paint cans, brushes, drop cloths and other paraphernalia have been sequestered behind our 6’ claw foot tub for about the last six years.
I couldn’t stand it anymore. But painting a ceiling and baseboards and window and door frames requires a commitment greater than a sock drawer, and I came close to talking myself out of it. So I started with the cleaning. Maybe I’d paint tomorrow.
By the time I had wiped down nearly every surface in the room, I started feeling a little better. That space behind the toilet? Critter-free. Under the tub? No more carpet of dust. Under the sink? Cleaned that out too. Even cleaned the light fixtures. I pulled every towel but a couple from the shelves. Time for new towels, too, but I’ll wait on that purchase—talk about a commitment!
A nice lunch of leftovers fueled me for the real work. There was no turning back. Starting
with the ceiling over the shower, I worked my way around the room until an even coat of paint covered the surface and me. Ever since our contractor upgraded the bathroom, painting only around the light fixtures he moved, the patchy paint job has bugged me. No more!
Next the baseboards transformed from dingy beige to glistening white and I couldn’t stop until the window and door frames got their first fresh coats.
Suddenly it was 7 p.m. Happy and hungry, I stopped. Tomorrow I’ll throw on one more coat around the window and door and the paint cans will finally move to the laundry room—my next project! I’ve decided this next week will be dedicated to finishing those ankle-biter projects that have nibbled for far too long. I’ll get to my closets eventually. And those last chapters.
2 replies on “Urge to Purge”
Very enjoyable and inspiring read Laurel, and thank you for posting the photo of the remodel bathroom.
Thanks, Robin! I think many people are put off by the shear scope of some of their projects. I had to really commit to focusing on one room to keep from what I would call my normal butterfly approach, which takes me from room to room with no real sense of completing anything! Oh, and I broke down and impulse bought the new towels as Costco today because they had some in the color of our “outdated” floor tile. Time to make a rag pile of the oldies!