Giving Up Dusting

I'm giving up dusting for Lent. Well not so much making a sacrifice but coming to the realisation that it's foolish dusting the furniture when I'm packing everything anyway. The whole shifting business is so daunting- I'm trying not to think about it. I do have moments of satisfaction though like Sunday when I managed to condense 14 boxes of items into three. Well most of the boxes only had a couple of things in the bottom anyway so really it was no great feat. When I moved here over eight years ago I only had my bedroom furniture and had to borrow chairs and a couple of tables. Storage here is at a premium so much of my "stuff" has been sitting in the boxes they arrived in. My sister once asked when I was going to unpack but the truth is that I had nothing to put anything in so what was the point? However sifting my way through a lifetime of accumulated dross has forced me to be a bit ruthless- if I haven't seen things in eight years are they really that important? The problem with inveterate hoarders like myself is that you always convince yourself that something is going to "come in handy one day".

I have been awake since 3am today. Tried to get back to sleep only to have Peaches leap across from the bed onto the dressing table sending two pictures and all my crystal figurines (given to me by family and one now deceased friend) crashing down behind the chest of drawers. 4am saw me reaching behind trying to rescue things and trying not to freak about all the spider's webs I could feel. Amazingly the only things that were broken were a crystal duck's tail which had separated from its body and a tiny rabbit who has lost its ears again. Managed to find all the pieces and will try and repair them again before packing them for safety's sake. I have a feeling it's going to be a long long day.............