To thine own self be true

Summer break from school and what do I do? I take the kids to the library to register them for the summer reading program. While there, I check out my own summer reading fare: books on gardening tips, folklore and nearly-lost artisan skills, dried flower arranging, and on the more practical side, a book meant to inspire me to rise to the occasion of organizing our home, disorganization being an ever-encroaching foe in our world. Why even as I sit here, I see things at this home-office station that don't really need to be here: a half-burned pumpkin-scented candle, my son's spray can of Axe deodorant, an empty can of Hawaiian Punch, fruit juicy red flavor, a little grey pencil that looks to have been inadvertently taken from bin at a put-put golf place...no wonder I need a book for inspiration!

But I know myself well enough to recognize those lengths of orderliness where I will most assuredly fall short. For instance, I know what I won't do:

• buy a rainbow of plastic hangers so I can color-code what's hanging in my closet.
• tag all my tablecloths (All? That would be 3 of them) with labels to identify them by size and color.
• display my rolled washcloths (again maybe 3 of them unless you count the shop towels we sometimes use in place of them) on a decorative platter (despite the fact that all of them would fit on the one tray, and the thought of that is a bit inspiring.)
• rearrange my closet so that light colors hang in the back corners, thereby giving the area a more spacious appearance.
• buy a notebook in which to keep an inventory of all of my dishes, with sub-notes regarding their condition: what is chipped, cracked, etc; nor will I set said "dishes" out to determine whether to keep them or toss them based on whether the sight of them gracing my table causes me to smile (I'm thinking here of say my green Tupperware bowl that often doubles as a serving dish given that as often as not I don't feel like washing both a storage and a serving bowl, for heaven's sake!)

I think these recommendations presume a lifestyle not in keeping with my own. The book is not, however, a total waste of reading time, because what I find in its pages that I might do is:

• use the instructions given for washing vintage fabrics such as the baby quilt my great-grandma left me.
• find the inspiration to have necklace and pin clasps fixed and to reorganize my jewelry box.
• outfit the closet with storage bins to replace the high shelving where I keep my stacks of sweaters. For years, those sweaters have been wont to slide in a heap onto my head whenever I reach for any one of them, yet I've never thought to do anything but scoop them all up and throw them back up there.

And, what I certainly hope to do:

• take everything from junk drawers and shelves, dump it all in a box, put it in the center of the living room and announce: take what you want by midnight tomorrow. After that, I'm getting rid of what's left!