Day 10 - Cleaning House

Happy President’s Day everyone!  First off, I’d like to share with you all a little something new I learned today in my attempt to appreciate exactly why I did not have to go to work.  Please read the following excerpt from history.com.  If you have no interest in furthering your knowledge of national holidays – skip it, and move on to my personal gem for the day.

Presidents’ Day is an American holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February. Originally established in 1885 in recognition of President George Washington, it is still officially called “Washington’s Birthday” by the federal government. Traditionally celebrated on February 22—Washington’s actual day of birth—the holiday became popularly known as Presidents’ Day after it was moved as part of 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. While several states still have individual holidays honoring the birthdays of Washington, Abraham Lincoln and other figures, Presidents’ Day is now popularly viewed as a day to celebrate all U.S. presidents past and present.

For those of you who had today off like me – I’m happy for you.  I hope you enjoyed the brief respite from the working world as much as I did.  If you worked today, in any capacity, you have my deepest condolences and sincere appreciation for keeping our country rolling.  I hope you get a break soon.

As usual, I had little planned for my day off today.  While I often pack my weekends to the gills, I try very hard to have next to nothing cluttering up my holidays.  I woke up, took a good morning stretch, and became immediately aware of the state of my bedroom.  I keep my apartment very tidy, but the one room I struggle with the most is my bedroom.  Like most Chicago apartments, my lovely, vintage, dark hardwood home has very little closet space – so if I do not keep everything organized with Martha Stewart-esque consistency, it rapidly begins to look like TJ Maxx threw up in my tiny bedroom.  Let’s just say I haven’t been channeling Martha very much lately.

Here is my biggest issue with keeping my room in order: It always seems that the clothes I wear most often never make it into the closet or the armoire.  It is so much easier, but far less civilized, to live out of laundry bags and baskets, and so in the middle of a busy week, there is little chance my pants are going to be hung up or my neatly folded sweaters stacked on a shelf.  Consequently, weeks might go by where I barely open my closet, and a huge portion of my wardrobe goes unworn.  Today, my something new was that I vowed to change that.  I ventured into the (very shallow) bowels of my closet, and ransacked the shelves of my armoire.  I found some interesting things.

First, I tackled my stack of cardigan sweaters (I have many, in many colors – it’s like Joseph’s amazing Technicolor dream coat when they are all lined up).  I pulled them out, ironed them, and found a space for them in the closet – ensuring they will be less wrinkled at 5:00 am on a random Wednesday and I’ll be far more likely to wear them.  I discovered - at the bottom of the pile - sweaters I haven’t worn all school year.  Some of them I put in a pile for Goodwill, and others I will be wearing this week.  Then, I went through my t-shirts, of which I have an alarming number.  I counted seventeen with some iteration of MCHS on them, five emblazoned with my dance school’s name, two St. Pat’s Block Party shirts, two Ridge Run shirts, and a handful of random others.  I managed to glean six to give away.  Then I went through my “school shirts” hanging in my closet and added several that I haven’t worn in ages to my goodwill pile, making more room for the clothes I actually like and wear regularly.  The process continued, and while my room won’t soon be featured on HGTV, it is vastly improved.

What did I learn from this process? While you all know I’m a sucker for a good metaphor.  I started to think about how the state of my bedroom and closet could be a metaphor for the state of my life – for all our lives.  How often do we hang on to things that are not that important to us – that no longer have use in our lives but take up space that could be occupied by something more valuable?  Could I let go of old opinions, unfounded judgments, or stale worldviews? Can I clear my heart and mind of anger or resentment, forgotten like those old sweaters, but is still lingering and waiting to be uncovered?  We all hold on to things that don’t help us, and might even hinder us.  Today - inspired by a pile of t-shirts and sweaters - I contemplated letting go.