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| A perfectly kept house is the sign of a misspent life. True statement and a great book by Mary Randolph Carter. |
When I was a kid everyone, including me, thought I was a lazy slob because I hardly ever cleaned my room. No one really took notice of the fact that the few times a year I did clean it, I did an extremely thorough job.
Of course I know now that I wasn't lazy, I was a perfectionist exhibiting classic all or nothing behavior. Unfortunately that pattern would follow me well into adulthood. It took me decades to realize that I didn't have to move all the furniture every time I vacuumed or scrub grout lines with a toothbrush every time I cleaned a bathroom.
You can imagine what a relief it was when I finally figured out that just tidying up a room for five minutes is often the difference between total chaos and "not so bad" and that "not so bad" is good enough!
However, I still like to do that thorough cleaning just a couple of times a year. So to give myself some extra motivation in tackling it, I usually combine it with some sort of decorating project. In the case of my messy, cluttered hallway, I decided my project would be re-painting the art shelf Hippie helped me build and install a few years ago.
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| Before: My messy, cluttered but still very functional hallway. |
I decided I wanted to try something different so I went with a bright orange color. All it cost me was the price of a sample pot of paint and maybe an hour of total painting time.
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| After: The newly painted bright orange shelf compliments my art work. |
I had also treated myself to a couple of new hardcover books recently which helped motivate me to clean and reorganize my hall bookshelf.
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| You can never have enough bookshelves. |
I found a new rug for the hallway as well but I didn't buy it just for me.
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| All the rugs in our house belong to our cat, Poe. |
These few changes were enough to make clearing out cobwebs, wiping down baseboards and mopping the floor more rewarding. And now I have a newly clean and organized hallway for my whole family to enjoy. At least until we mess it up again.
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| After: My clean for now hallway. |
Rapunzel's New Plan Art By Victoria Lynn Hall Canvas Prints by Victoriart
Check out other Fairytales Canvas Prints at zazzle.com
