This Will Change My Life?

New beginnings in the kitchen by J. Binford-Bell

Creative minds seldom have neat houses. And yet as a creative mind I seem surrounded by less creative friends with Martha Stewart houses. In the best of times I want their ability to keep things neat and in the worst of times I want to remind them that Martha Stewart went to jail.

Oprah, before she left the public air ways and my radar, claimed on one of her more noted (at least by my friends) shows that uncluttering your physical space allowed you to unclutter your life - i.e. streamline you for success. Books have been written on the subject. I own a couple. Uncluttering has become one of the two subjects I hate. The other is how much weight lost on this last diet. I have a couple friends I have deleted from the let's-have-lunch list because this seems the only two topics they can discuss. Not unlike toilet training and crab grass removal of my youth.

I am afraid I am one of those that puts dieting and decluttering in with making the bed - I am just going to have to do it again. And again. And again. Don't believe me? Think about it. My friends that have decluttered for much of the last five years seem to still be doing it.

Meanwhile I diet when the jeans don't fit as well, and declutter when I cannot find a thing I am looking for. Or while looking for just the right spice things fall out of the cabinet. So yesterday I cleaned and organized the cooking cabinet. It is the one with the flour and sugar and spices needed for my creative flair in the kitchen. BTW the wine glasses and cupcake cups are on the top shelf because they are seldom used and that shelf is above my reach anyway.

This was not cabinet one in my organizational spurt. Just the day before I had moved the coffee mugs from the cabinet on the north outside wall of the kitchen to a cabinet on an interior wall so they would not be icy cold.

New Beverage Center

This spurt of organization had the benefit of creating an open lay-down area right next to the refrigerator. And the cold cabinet above it now holds storage containers that are going into the refrigerator when full. anyway.

Open counter space

No this is not decluttering. Very little got tossed beyond empty spice bottles. And few items went into the boxes for the thrift store. This is creative organization. I did that on my bedroom a few months back. Round three or four of that effort. It has a ways to go by it is getting closer to the bedroom of my dreams. BTW I do not routinely make my bed. I creatively rearrange my studio all the time. And when I am not doing it I am thinking about doing it.

I currently have two areas of my house I have been ignoring - the spare room and the hall. Well, I do not have to live in either place.

I doubt that my efforts in the kitchen the last couple of days will make any major miracle in my life appear. I will, however, have warm coffee mugs, be able to easily find the spice I am looking for, and not drop the huge kettle of green chili stew on the way to the refrigerator. That is worth something.

Will it stay this way? Doubtful. I do not have Oprah's extensive cleaning staff. But you can be sure I am not talking about it over lunch. I probably only did this because my mind has been on a new moon ceremony scheduled. The focus of the ceremony is beginnings and intentions. I have been thinking about what I want. My mind mediates best on such things when doing mindless tasks. Gandhi spun wool. I clean cabinets in the kitchen, organize the paper rack in the studio, comb through the summer clothing going to the thrift shop.

Clean cabinets. Clear mind. New beginnings? Certainly more room.