fresh perspective

I’m a chronic rearranger. Even as a kid, I moved my furniture around on a regular basis. I probably inherited the tendency from my mom, who moves the garbage can around the kitchen to a new place every time I visit…and sometimes halfway through my visit. My childhood was full of elaborate furniture swaps between the women in our family, and endless redecorating projects. I learned to wallpaper before I learned to shave my legs, and I can tape off a room for painting with the best of ‘em.

Suffice it to say, I come by my compulsive rearranging rightly.

I’ve lived in a lot of small spaces over these last eight years, which puts a bit of a damper on the extent to which changes can be made, but I still manage to freshen the feng shui of my environment a couple times a year. Sometimes I get roommates in on the project and the day turns into an apartment rearranging party, much like today did. On those days, I should be banned from access to craigslist, where I will most certainly be looking for bookcases I don’t need…except I feel like if there’s one thing I need more of, it’s bookshelves because no matter how many boxes of books I put in storage every time I move I still manage to have way too many.

The last three days have been a lot of organizing and re-homing. The instance of returning home from visiting my parents for Christmas and having gifts to put away and laundry to do converged with needing to prepare for houseguests and an altogether occupying need to adjust some furniture…it all kind of happened at once, with a lot of 80s and 90s British punk in the background. And when I mean it all happened at once, that’s how it happens. I let very few friends and family members be privy to my organizational tactics because they are completely bonkers. Utterly, exhaustingly incoherent. Seven tasks all at once, me muttering to myself, with plenty of coffee to tie it all together. Unfortunately, I also seem to have my best hair days when I’m playing the crazy hermit lady, and this week was no different. Ah well.

I love the freshness of new organization. I love when for at least a minute (because that’s about how long I can maintain a clean bedroom) my space feels totally “me”. My bed is made and my books are in neat stacks and my nutella has a new stashing spot and most of my clothes are folded and put away. My world is in order and my overactive mind can rest in my little sanctuary that is decorated with far too much green.

So that’s what I’ve been up to since graduating a few weeks ago. Rearranging. Coincidence? Maybe. Or maybe not.