Clean Sweep

I think I'm addicted to another reality based television show. This one I'm not feeling so guilty about since it really is about self-improvement. I was sitting on the floor playing with JT and Clean Sweep was on in the background. The couple was battling over junk and one of the hosts had to give them a quickie marriage counseling session. They started out justifying every piece of junk when he'd ask about it. "It was my grandmothers" or "I'm going to fix it up" and "It was my eighth grade graduation dress" were the repeating phrases. The fixer uppers were things that were going to be fixed months ago but sat in their guestroom. I got to looking around the living room and noticed dustballs (courtesy of Kitty Princess) the size of large rats, empty soda bottles, broken snow globes, gas receipts, Midas receipts for the car, empty battery packs. What in the world am I doing with this? I broke into a sweat sitting in my white robe, yes, the same white robe my folks gave me back in the 90's for Christmas one year, and started tackling the pile of junk. I made a (not so) little pile next to the table and broke out the Swiffer cloths and wiped items down and put things away. Dead batteries in the garbage, new batteries with the other new batteries in the entertainment center. Snowglobe with the snow melted into a glob that resembled a loogie? Dusted off lovingly (don't ask me why) and then placed in the garbage pile. $5 off coupon for Bed, Bath and Beyond went straight into the junk pile. Never mind that it expired months ago, but more importantly I rarely shop there and if I need to, don't they send those out every few months or so anyway? I found 6 empty candle containers, I'm sorry but I threw them away, too. Grama B makes candles but lately her life has been too preoccupied to make them and I'm not going to shove a bag in her hand for her to refill. It's not like we don't have a cupboard full of empties anyway. Once the living room was a bit straightened up, I got the clean sweep bug and busted out the new cleaner I bought and set out to scrub the sinks and bathtubs. Nothing better than the smell of a clean bathroom on a Saturday morning with shiny chrome handles. It's time to clean sweep my turtles, too. They aren't junk but I have an enormous amount of them. Time to stop putting emotional labels on every one of them and choose which of them are my favorites and scrap the rest. I'm not even going to bother with saving them for a garage sale because that just means I have another pile of stuff sitting in the kitchen for months. Instead, IESI will be busy hauling away my clean swept home.