charwoman

I have been immersed for the last two weeks in a different kind of project. I am determined to make up, in one obsessed month, for all the housewifely things I’ve put off for years. This is because we are planning to list our house for sale, hopefully as soon as the end of May, and buy and move to a townhouse.

And so I am organizing the shed, kitchen cupboards, bedroom closets and drawers, going through plastic totes and my old trunk, and washing walls. Yesterday we moved the old Heintzman, which weighs a ton, so I could vacuum and wash behind it. Gross!!

I printed out some advice from the web about preparing a house for sale. This article certainly agrees with what I see done all the time on HGTV. Its top three bits of advice: “1. Disassociate yourself with your home, 2. De-personalize and 3. De-clutter.” Thus on Wednesday I took down most of the personal photos and pictures from the walls, packed away ornaments, polished the wood tops of coffee and end tables, and voila - brighter and sleeker.

Of course much of our stuff doesn’t get packed away for the future. It needs to go. And so I come against the quandary – what do I do with it all? Fortunately I had the foresight to say ‘yes’ to the Canadian Diabetes person who phoned a few weeks ago. Last Friday they picked up a bundle. But until we’ve dealt with every rat’s nest in this whole place (from the over-carport storage to the crawl space) there will always be more.

On Monday, for example, I decided to do away with the unsightly tin shelves we’ve used as a linen closet in the upstairs foyer. This meant that I had to drastically reduce the amount of bed linens and old towels I’ve been hanging onto so that everything would fit into the tiny built-in hall closet. What to do with all the old sheets and towels? I discovered I already have a good number of old sheet drop cloths squirreled away. And my downstairs rag shelf is bursting with tattered towels. “God, if there is some place that will take any of this stuff so we don’t have to garbage it, please show me,” I prayed Tuesday morning.

Tuesday was my birthday. When my neighbor came over to wish me a happy one and I mentioned my dilemma, she said, “The SPCA and the Animal Hospital love those things.” Yesterday we found out they certainly do. They took our garbage bag-full with great eagerness.


Photo: The fragrance of this birthday Stargazer Lily (a gift from my son) as it drifts through my ever-more-orderly rooms is also adding to this charwoman’s enjoyment.

I’m enjoying this month away from writing projects with less time at the computer. I love how nice the walls look after a good scrubbing. Less doodads on furniture and window ledges makes the place look peaceful. But especially I love it when I sense my heavenly Father is also involved – helping me with mundane details like finding a place that can use my old linens.

From today’s God Calling:

Joy in Me, trust in Me, share all life with Me, see Me in everything, rejoice in Me. Share all with Me as a child shares its pains and cuts and griefs and newfound treasures and joys and little work with its Mother.

And give Me the joy of sharing all with you.