So perked was I from my clear out the closet mission of the other day that I went on to attack the fridge too. That was frankly a small assignment, and quickly done, but it did occasion great satisfaction at the end. Ahh, clean, cool, clear, crisp … as fridges ought to be.

I’m afraid though that after that, the  obsessiveness set in … I’m on a psychotic roll here. Today, I trashed a whole bunch of papers and files that I had carefully kept for years.  They were clogging up my bookshelves, which obviously, are meant to house books. It’s amazing how much paper I found I actually had (like the clothes closet experience …) and files that I hadn’t looked at in years. There were piles of paper from courses I had taken, and courses I had taught, notes and research that I had got neatly bound and filed away. I remember last year that I cleaned out quite a bit of paper mess too, but apparently I had opted to hang on to some of them that I had thought were important. Well, today I found out how unnecessary they were, and ruthlessly removed them to the recycle bin. Delete every superfluous thing!

Of course, that meant I could move the books temporarily dumped on my table to the shelves where they belonged. And now bookshelves look fairly representative with books on shelves, and my worktop is a sight for sore eyes. Neat and clean and spare as I like it to be! There was definitely a zen moment somewhere … a lightening of the breath at the sight of such … neatness … ahh so …

Observe …

Some people, not quite so minimalist and streamlined in their lives and personalities, cannot understand the need for characters like me to live in clean and spare environments. Somehow, it escapes them that clutter = disorganisation = distress of the soul. They just don’t get the extreme neatness and efficiency bit.

The minimalist dream.

Not that I’m there yet … but one day soon …