Need to Clean?

I knew it when it was time for me to retire.  I'd had enough and it was time to go.  Now that I'm around home more, I feel, with almost the same certainty, that I need to clean.  Not the ordinary kind of cleaning - vacuuming, dusting, mopping kind of cleaning. But cleaning out, clearing out, making space in my house.

And why not?  Retirement has made space in my life that I've never had before. I now have time to spread out into.  Time to spend on things I like to do.  Just time to be.

I need space in my house, too. Not that I'm a hoarder or anything like that.  We've lived in our house for over 25 years, and we have accumulated a normal amount of stuff.  Some of it we accumulated deliberately. Some of it we accumulated because we didn't have time or the energy to get rid of it.  That's what junk drawers are for, right?  "Temporary storage" that never is really temporary.

I don't really want to do the cleaning myself.  I'm not good at getting rid of things if I'm left to do it alone.  I spend too much time mulling over possible uses for whatever, and saving things I don't need to save.  That's how those junk drawers got filled in the first place.

So, just like I picked a date and retired, I guess I'll have to pick a closet and get started. I know it's time.