Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Late Spring Cleaning -- Week 1, Day 1, rotating seasonal clothes

I know it's not summer yet, but I can still wish for it. Last night I acted on my first target, moving the winter coats on the chairs to attic. It started very simple, but quickly grew into a huge job. I worked very hard for 3 hours, and still went to bed with a messy closet. I put all those winter coats, which I washed already, into those big luggage in the attic, and took all summer clothes down to the bedroom closets. Quite a workout! I knew I have lots of clothes, but still got surprised every year. I probably have enough summer clothes to fill two 70lb capacity luggage, if not more. When I grew up, everyone was poor in China, so we wore those pass-down clothes, and we took care of our clothes carefully so they can last 'forever'. The time has changed, but I still has that habit. Some of my clothes are more than 15 years old, I got them from my sister back in high school. I don't wear them any more, but still want to hold on to them for the sentimental values. And some of the clothes don't fit any more, but I hope to lose some weight and squeeze back in someday. I know, I am quite a packrat! But I am changing, slowly. For the past 3 years, I have been donating my old clothes to Sal. Army, several bags every year. I thought I should have much less clothes now, but apparently, I cannot stop myself from buying new ones. At least, I bought the new ones myself, and wear them often. DH buys my favorite Chinese fashion magazine, Rayli, everytime he goes back, I am trying my best to follow the style, and learning more about makeups and hairstyles. I just LOVE LOVE that magazine. Rayli is THE MOST POPULAR magazine in China, almost all chinese girls read it. I have to remember to take some pictures of it and show you. OK, back to my summer clothes. I only went through half last night, so I have several big piles on my bedroom floor waiting to be sort through, and organized.
The floor in my bedroom and closet. There is actually another bigger pile right behind, those are all the winter clothes I am going to put into the attic, and a smaller pile of donations.
My side of the closet, halfway done. There is actually one more shelf on top, and currently holding some of my bags. May need to get some of those canvas boxes to protect them. My jeans and shorts on the shelf in the picture, long dresses at left most section. Shirts and tops hanging on top, skirts and dress pants hanging on bottom. I am running out of hangers, so I doubled every single one of them. So, double the amount what you are seeing in this picture.
DH side of the closet. I installed that sets of tiny shelves right after we moved in. The clothes on the 3 shelves are DH's T shirts, mine will be on the bottom two. I just bought that white wooden shelf from Target. It's on my way home, I just love to shop there.
Anyway, see that small box on top of that white shelf, it is our escape ladder. Everyone should have one of these in their bedroom, doesn't matter they are renting or owning the house. A fire is a fire, you have to be able to get out if the bedroom door is blocked, and with this, you don't have to jump out of the window and break your legs. So, if you don't have this, go get one, FIRST THING TOMORROW! (It's midnight here now. I am editing this post.) I am going to figure out a way to use the rest of the wall space for my jewelry, esp. my earrings, I like to see all of them when I make my choice in the morning. Back to my clothes on the floor situation. Oh, forgot to mention that I try everything on before making any decision. That's why it took so long. It's messy now, but I can see the finished picture, my well organized closet and dresser, and empty floor! Maybe I can steal some space from DH side. I bet he will never notice.

Now some updates on the robin nests. Nest #2 on the porch, remember? The one in my English Ivy pot.
I am happy to report that both nests have 4 tiny blue eggs now, and the mama robins are sitting on them all the time. So, pretty soon, we should have some cute, but noisy, baby robins. Cannot wait. The only side effect of this is we have to use the side door more often now. And we may not be able to use our deck or porch often this summer, because we don't want to scare the robins all the time. The problem is they nested in my pots, and I do have other plants around them and I have to water them everyday. Guess the robins just have to ignore us. Here is a shot of the nest #1 (on the deck) among all my plants.I know it's kind of confusing, the plants' positions keep changing. It's just we had some pretty cold night last week, and I had to take almost all my tender plants back inside, because orchids and jasmines don't stand a chance against temperature below 32. Hope the baby robins won't attack my flowers later. We'll see.

2 comments:

drey said...

i'd be so tempted to DECORATE that birds nest hahahaha

would make a great artwork in your place! see if you can take a close up :P

so excited for you

TranquilityKnots said...

Thought about that too. But I have to wait until the season is over. And I can only get close up of the eggs in the nest, not the mothers. They are very smart and shy creatures, and won't stay if I get too close. Maybe I should disguise myself. What should I dress up like then?
I am very excited, cannot wait for the babies to come out.