On Cleaning, Migrating Compulsions, and Role Reversals [NYNY]

Those of you who have been here for any amount of time will remember I learned my lesson about keeping up with magical housework in what I'm dubbing The Spider Plague of 2011. Well, mostly. Kind of.

(tl;dr Feel free to skip to the magical/NYNY bit here.)

Example: Approximately 300 metric fucktons of grade-A fail.

I've actually been good about keeping up with regular (although not at all thorough or formal) cleansings since moving to my new mountain home. At least, there hasn't been the need for another spiritual Hiroshima, and the overtly large jar of GTFO potion lies safely tucked away in a back corner of my spiritual supplies drawer. Add to this the fact that I gave up a metric fuck-ton (that's an SI standard, that is) of possessions (read: useless clutter) in my interstate move, and finally having a real dresser with an appropriate number of drawers, and I've actually been keeping things pretty clean on the physical plane as well. Well, mostly. Kind of.

Never thought I'd be happy to
no longer have a desk.

You see, my problem has always been papers, tchotchkes, and dust. Having kicked the paper habit, the dust actually gets cleaned, and the tchotchkes have all found more permanent homes or been discarded. But it seems that all the "clutter" (in the nebulous sense) has somehow migrated outward... just beyond the bubble of personal space that is my room, chaos reigns. Well, mostly. Kind of.

It starts with the mail. Now, I've never lived with someone that gets as much mail (most of it legitimate) as my roommate. Maybe it's her refusal to do anything business-related online, but I'd never seen a larger-than-average mailbox stuffed to the brim every day until I moved here. What most people don't realize is, this masses of mail this large collapse and condense into smaller, but I'm convinced sentient (and evil) clusters, which somehow invade the entire house like rodents. Every surface outside my bubble is eventually affected, which causes enough dirt and dust to build up that by the time it all gets sorted properly (into a legit full-size filing cabinet), cleaning all the house surfaces is a multi-day job. I'm really not trying to make my roommate sound like a slob, it's honestly just a volume issue. It is rather entertaining, though, to see an issue I once had (albeit with school papers) reflected outwardly like this; if nothing else, it solidifies the advantage of the "do it now" principle I've been trying to adopt, in that these torturous cleaning sessions could be mostly avoided if there were a daily read/file/shred routine.

So that's where I left that.

It ends (thankfully there are only two items on this list, windbag that I am) with my car. I'm convinced that useless junk magically (hah) appears there. Nevermind the papers, cords, fast food bags, bits and bobs, and the odd sock, but I recently found an entire suitcase of clothes I didn't know I had which has apparently been living in a dark corner of my trunk for the past 5 months. Seriously? I mean, I know I dress "professionally" most every day and so only go through about a tenth of my wardrobe, but seriously? How did I not notice that?

 Alternatively, I need to work on my
conjuring-sexy-maids-from-the-ether skills.

It's been said time and time again, but even though it seems like your normal, everyday clutter, all this shit really starts to effect you magically in a way that's not really obvious until you actually get around to cleaning it. Not that I don't have excuses at the ready for why I haven't gotten around to taking care of it before now. After all, I've been busy being a full time student, working, setting up a tutoring business, setting up an online magical project/group, beefing up my regular magical practice, etc, etc, et fucking cetera. But hell, in response to reading Deb's post on making way (which the "do it now" principle demands I put into action immediately) I spent an entire afternoon cleaning, only got through about a third of the junk, did no magical cleaning whatsoever, and still I can feel a difference in the place. A small difference, but a good one nonetheless. The quality of my regular work was definitely improved tonight, and I have high hopes for bigger improvements as I tackle the rest of the house over the next few days, finally going over everything with a light misting of heavily diluted (like, three drops in a large spray bottle) GTFO potion. Lesson learned; banish your shit applies to the physical plane as well.

My first weekend home in a month, and I'm spending it cleaning? New me, indeed.