RULE OF FIVE

Do people STILL do "spring cleaning"?  I can recall, as a child, my mother would take out all of the glassware from the "china cabinet" and I would wash and dry the pieces and I would hear the history of each piece.

With all the modern conveniences now available, I would think that "spring cleaning" is just a reminder of a "time gone by".  In July, 2013, I wrote a BLOG article titled NO MORE STUFF and I claimed that I was going to DE-CLUTTER.  I have always been a very organized person and followed my mother's dictum:  "a place for everything and everything in its place", but I STILL have too much STUFF!

Our friends Bob and Connie gave me the book the life-changing magic of tidying up, the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing as a Christmas present and since January, I have been diligently sorting and collecting STUFF for a planned Rummage Sale to benefit the Dog Rescue group RESCUED ANIMALS FOR THEIR FUREVER HOMES.  (OK, I know that "furever" is outrageously cute, but I rather like it!).

I recently saw Peter Walsh, the organizing maven, tell his secrets of Spring Cleaning with his RULE OF FIVE:

5. give away FIVE items
4.  toss FOUR items that are stained, broken, or are trash
3.  clean out THREE major areas of the house
2.  perform TWO chores outside the house
1.  gift ONE item to a friend.

OK, I have done ALL these items!  I gave a brand-new designer purse to my friend.  She and I were having lunch to celebrate her birthday and I was carrying the purse for the first time and I plopped the purse on the seat beside me.  She admired the purse and I told her that it reminded me of her and she could have it.  When we were leaving I told her to come to my car.  I opened the trunk, dumped the purse contents onto the trunk floor and handed the purse to her.  She insisted that she shouldn't take it and she would gladly pay me for it.

She knows me well-enough to know that I am NOT an "impulse buyer" (especially with expensive items) but when I told her that I didn't actually like the purse ("It's not ME!") she asked why I had bought it.  I told her that it reminded me of HER!

I said, "You know I am SO old-fashioned that I would need my shoes to match my purse and there's NO way I could find shoes THAT color!"