January Clean Up
Do you get excited about January? It seems like most people do. It’s a New Year and with it comes reflection, new beginnings, and new (same) diet and workout resolutions. Some people even choose a new word to focus on for the year.
I’ve always found it a clean-up month. Clean up the refrigerator. All the leftovers from the New Year’s Eve party need to go. The spoiled red pepper that never got used in the dip slithers into the trash. It’s best to wash out the whole fridge! That sticky, unknown spill from Christmas will take some elbow grease to clean up.
There’s glitter in the carpet from cute wrapping paper the little girls tore to shreds while opening new toys. The glitter will last longer than the toys! Look at the wine stain on my favorite chair; that will take serious scrubbing with unknown chemicals. The spill would never have happened if the second bottle of wine had stayed in the cupboard. I love to put up a fresh Douglas Fir for our Christmas tree so I will be cleaning up individual, dry pine needles, one by one, hidden under baseboards, heating vents, and closets until May!
Don’t forget the gift that has to be returned! Remember when you received that bizarre present that made you wonder, “What were they thinking?”. It’s very fresh in my mind! Where is it supposed to go? It’s too heavy for the basement and too cumbersome to fit in the kitchen! Complicated directions render the equipment useless; I don’t even try. So, back to the store without a receipt - this will be fun. Remembering where I file the store credit next Christmas will be a challenge. This is a clean-up I don’t wish on anyone, yet I know I have given the same unwanted gift that needed returning.
Do you still hand-write thank you notes? I love to, but, is it too late to thank a friend for a December tenth party? I don’t want to seem either ungrateful or completely disorganized. It makes me think of a thank you note I received for a wedding present six months after the event. The couple divorced eight months after the event! Wonder who got the knife set?
I digress.
Speaking of the tenth, on January tenth the credit card bill comes. Won’t it be entertaining to see all the charges and relive all the wonderful lunches and dinners with distant relatives and friends? The payables due for the specialty food store will bring back good memories. The fancy hors d’oeuvres and desserts purchased to make a party easier were a big hit and everyone knew I couldn’t have made them myself. How many times, while reviewing the charges, have I questioned what gift, for whom, was purchased at an unknown cryptic location? Why can’t the billing name be the same as the name on the front door?
The annual fees for HOAs, music clubs, and digital periodical subscriptions lead to another unplanned clean-up of all memberships. The wine of the month, the flower of the month, and the quarterly Columbian coffee delivery all require soul-searching and resolution keeping. The Slime Box Club for the grandkids needs to be canceled because how much slime does any one child need? (I know, none) Getting the budget in order requires a hefty workout and should count for some calories burned and a special treat not listed on the new diet resolution.
After cleaning up from a fun-filled holiday frenzy I am ready to turn the page on the calendar to cold, quiet February. Stay inside by the fire and do a challenging jigsaw puzzle. Read a book. Write a poem. No clean-up because that’s all I did in January! No shopping, bill paying, or carpet scrubbing. Now might be a calmer time to choose a ‘word’ for the year or make a reasonable resolution lacking unreasonable expectations. Something doable and meaningful. February gets lost in the cold, everyone runs away from it. Trips to Florida or Arizona. Beach time in Mexico or southern California. But not me. I love a day with 8 inches of new snow on the ground, a bright blue Colorado sky, and fresh pasta boiling and steaming up the windows.
Bit by bit, that’s all she wrote…