Dealing with Dragon Skin

I have been keeping up with my Clearing Spaces. But you might not know it to look at my house right now. It is covered with piles as I transition things to where they really ought to be instead of where they just happened to be parked.

And there are, let's see, six boxes of books and 1 trash bag full of things to unload at the thrift store. Last week I got rid of 2 trash bags of give-aways and 2 boxes of books. Plus, I've filled a couple of trash bags with real trash. So I have been making progress.

I have been making a very sloowww circuit around the house because I want to be thorough. So it's gone like this:

• Mud Room
• Entry Hall
• Kitchen -- north side
• Kitchen -- east side
• Game closet -- started (still have more to do)
• Kitchen -- south side
• Kitchen -- west side (that was for today but I am going to skip it during this rotation and instead move on to the dining room)

This will go on past Lent. This time I am going through decluttering ruthlessly, putting things in order, and cleaning. The next rotation I plan to deal with intractable stains and things that need to be repaired or patched up. Also, there's a likelihood I will be decluttering EVEN MORE and packing up the things that still remain. Because.... we... may... just ... be... moving. Maybe. I think Kevin said, "We're thinking seriously about maybe moving." (Sean thought that was funny). No certainty yet, but I know that ruthlessly cutting into one's stuff doesn't ever hurt, even if we stay here.

I keep thinking about Eustace in Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when he was shedding his dragon's skin. Remember that? First he sloughed off a few scales. But that didn't do much good. Then he really dug in (or maybe Aslan did the clawing, it's been years since I reread the book last) and it hurt like heck while he was doing it, but he stepped out of that dragon his real self again, not a dragon hoarding its treasure in its greedy claws anymore. I always thought that was a good metaphor. Yikes!