I’ve never cleaned this much and thrown away so little in one day.

That’s four loads of laundry – darks, grays, whites and bed sheets, pillow cases and an ultra thick duvet cover – washed, dried, folded and stored in record time.

There was the switch over too, from summer to winter clothes.  Don’t mind me, I always do things ahead of time.  Although a few days back, I could have sworn that it was already winter, what with the morning temperature hovering in the low 40ºs. Today, however, is a different story. While pulling out woolen turtle necks and long johns, the temperature decides to rise to the mid-70s.

This changing of the guards shaved 5 hours off my day. Every time I do this, I swear my closet gets smaller and smaller. The sweaters that use to fit in one closet now has to be forced in. It starts out neat and orderly.  By the time I’m done, it looks like the clothes were just haphazardly shoved in in different directions. I never realized I have that many gloves, scarves, socks, wraps, and sweaters!

The Closet making its debut

The summer dresses, tops and skirts didn’t even get enough days for a complete rotation. With a different outfit every day, not all of my summer clothes got the spotlight it deserved.  Skirts were missed. Dresses still had tags on them. As I put summer clothes away, I left an entirely “new” pile for me to pack during my trip back to KL this December. That’s barely two weeks that I would have to cram the omitted wardrobe of this season.  It’s not fair that summer is so short.  Worse yet, this year’s summer was particularly cold.

In with the new out with the old?  That’s not my philosophy.  Mine is, “The more the merrier!” Of the load, I pulled out 2 dresses that was going to the Salvation Army. The rest, I’ll wait for the next switch-over. You never know, fashion always makes its way back.

I finally had a bite to eat at 4:30, but not before I finished cooking fried noodles for the week. I even started a pot of stew. Before I even warmed the seat, I got up to clean the store room.  This time – it’s the shoes!

…more like the entire storeroom. There were stuff in there leftover from the previous owner that were rusted out. Garbage.

Hubs has his entire car cleaning, liquid refilling store set up in there.  They were all dated back to the ’90s. Gar-bage.

There were empty weed whacker bottles lying around, mixed in with half used and brand new bottles.  Gar-bage.

The paints, brushes, rollers and pans were neatly repacked and relocated to the back end of never, never land. The floor tiling equipment: cement, grout, tile clippers, trowels, spades, spacers, sponges and goggles were stowed and stuffed compactly in a small box, moved to the I-don’t-see-it-which-means-it’s-not-there-space.  Of course, there were things that were just not worth saving. A pack-rat like me still knows when an object has no life left. It’s called GAR-BARGÉ!

I finally attacked the shoes. Stow away the summer flip-flops, sandals and kitten heels and bring out the fluffy, woolen boots!  Those nonsense that hubs keeps (from above) made way for my boots to be nicely arranged and very accessible. No more squeezing through tight spots and crossing pails of car wash/wax and sponges/brushes and chopped up wood to get to my shoes. After introducing two new pairs into the mix (bought from the day before), I decided to be a little charitable. I pulled out a pair of short leather boots and clogs to be donated.  My good deed for the day – two dresses with two shoes.

The Shoes (& paint) - that's half of it

I ended the day on my knees in the bathtub. Scrubbing grime out of a white tub is no joke. Not only did my knees get scuffed, I had a nice workout on my arms.

When I finally sat down for dinner at 8:30 pm, my joints were screaming. The remainder of the night, I hobbled around the house, but the sense of achievement was immeasurable. No pain, no gain.