Ever get that feeling where it almost makes more sense just to let it all go and start over?
I mean, people joke about it with laundry (which I totally get, especially since I currently have five overflowing baskets of laundry waiting to be folded). When the job just seems overwhelming, it makes sense.
I used to think about that with piles of correcting at school too. When the piles got too big, it was just too tempting to recycle the whole stack and pretend it never existed. Start over with an empty to do list.
One of the more satisfying experiences that came out of something awful was what happened after we'd lost power for five days. Everything in our deep freezer and fridge needed to be tossed. EVERYTHING, from frozen meat to that ketchup that had been sitting in the door of the fridge for ages because we don't use it often. It had been too long. So we threw EVERYTHING out, deep cleaned the fridge and freezer, and (thankfully) used our insurance check to do a massive shopping spree. In one day I knew exactly what we had and exactly how old it was. No more guessing if that mayo was still good or if we had chicken in the freezer. A fresh start was awesome.
A friend of mine admitted recently that as annoying as dealing with the aftermath of a fender bender was (no one was hurt, but an inconvenience of dealing with repairs and insurance can feel like a big deal), it was awesome to trash her crumb filled, juice stained, tried to clean but were never totally clean, car seats and replace them with new models - guilt free. Yes, you do need to do that after an accident, even a minor one.
Adam and I have talked about and ultimately decided against hiring someone to clean our house, but there are weeks when I want to grab some cash and hire someone to just get us to square one so I feel like I'm starting from a good place again.
Catch up, clean out, those are emotionally exhausting places.
There's something so satisfying about a fresh start. A clean slate. Starting over with something that's clutter free and stain free and backlog free, knowing that you have a new start and a license to walk away from the mess? I love that idea. Everyone knows that money can't buy happiness, and waste is totally irresponsible, but I'd love a big pile of disposable money and a clear conscience, just to do it once in a while.
But for now, I make my two page to do list, with every little thing on there, certain that if I can JUST finish this list, I'll have that clean slate and fresh start, but knowing, in the back of my mind, that by the time I finish those two pages it'll be followed by two more.
And little by little, I'll get my fresh starts.
