cleaning overdrive

Cleaning House: Do you hang on to old stuff?

- Mel

Our neighborhood yard sale was last weekend, and I really wish now that I would have got my shit together a little early (and cleaned out my closets and organized the basement). As we walked around, looking at the items that were selling, we groaned in unison: “We totally could have got rid of that!”

I also groaned and grumped later when I didn’t jump on the purchase of a $20 hammock, and it was sniped before I returned to purchase. I am not a good yard sale-r.

Old electronics. Clothes with tags still on. Home decor: lamps and frames and cabinets and tables. Random small appliances and kitchen ware. Boxes and boxes of cables and wires and chargers… formerly-awesome models of iPhones and iPods.

We have all these things and more!

After checking out sites like sellmymobile.com though, I think I can get a little more money for my old electronics that way (and a neighbor won’t have any weird, non-erased, possibly gossipy personal info). Not even joking though, I never imagined an old iphone could net me almost $200 at resale.

Every season I seem to go through another Purge though. I continue wanting to own LESS. I hate the idea of Storage. I wish that neighborhood-wide yard sales were a monthly thing because I’d be making at least a little something off all these old electronics, clothing with tages still on, home decor… you get where I’m going.

Summer’s Purge may have been a weekend too late for a successful yard sale, but I’m reaping the reward of removing all the clutter.

Aroma-therapy: my favorite scents

- Mel

Last weekend, the boyfriend asked me to rank my favorite scents in order. I have no idea how this conversation was even prompted.

I think he was surprised by a few of the (admittedly) ridiculous ones, but I was (am) completely serious:

  • Clean, fresh linens (I cannot STAND when clothing smells like you’ve been sitting outside for too long; adding to that: a linen is not fresh if it has been hanging outside. Just saying.)
  • Lemons (boyfriend also hates when I put them down the drain… but it’s like a fresh burst of citrus tree!)
  • Bleach (no, really; it’s the only way the bathroom is REALLY clean; I relate that smell to cleanliness.)
  • Gardenias (I might have forgotten this in my spouting off, but it’s on the list)
  • Lavender (I DID remember this one; I currently have a bouquet of dried, smashed lavender in my car… perhaps that’s what started the conversation?)
  • Mulling spices (reminds me of Fall and Winter at my grandmother’s making spiced cider)
  • New paper (printer paper, greeting cards, a box of new envelopes, journals… not newspapers or books though. They smell dirty. *smirk*)

So random, right?

Aromatherapy is popular for a reason. Your sense of smell is most closely tied to memory, and the smell of a favorite flower or spice or an old boyfriend’s cologne can be mood changing — both positive and negative. I can often be REALLY sensitive to smells (actually, most of my senses are super-heightened), but the fresh and airy scents help me relax.

And the pungent ones put me into cleaning overdrive — ha!