Happy Friday!

I was so looking forward to a relaxing weekend after a ridiculously hectic week, but my landlord has decided no lazy-time for me, scheduling an inspection on Monday morning. So instead of catching up on Gossip Girl and impersonating a big, immobile object, I will have my head in the oven instead. Never fear, I have electric so there is no Sylvia Plath in my future, just an oven well overdue for a clean.

I have a love/hate relationship with rental inspections. They never usually give you enough notice to do everything you really want to do, and as a bit of a clutter-bug, that entry notice in the mailbox is enough to give me palpitations.

My stepmother has a saying of 'everything has a place and everything in it's place'. If you put everything back in its place, you never have to tidy up! It's a completely logical way to live, it's just that the logical part of my brain seems to have been lobotomised at some point. It isn't my fault, not entirely!

You see, I live in a 2 bedroom unit that is quite large, but in typical apartment style, simply does NOT have adequate storage space. So there's actually not enough room for everything to HAVE a place. Thus the kitchen table and other nearby surfaces tend to pile up with things that I really must look at....one day. I also have white walls and cream carpet that show every single speck of dirt, fingerprints, you name it.

Plus I have an almost-12-year old. Enough said.

So that entry notice represents a weekend of scrubbing walls and floors, and a panicked hour on Sunday night throwing random things into drawers and cupboards to ensure I still have a place to live come Monday afternoon.

I hate the last part - I'm a Virgo by nature and whilst I can happily ignore clutter for (very) long periods, when I do want to get organised, I want to do it right. This means taking every single thing out of the cupboard in question, wiping down everything and then replacing it in some kind of system that makes complete sense to me (and none to anyone else).

And have you ever tried to clean a balcony in a high rise where you're not allowed to let water drip to the units below? One that seems to attract more than it's fair share of dirt in a matter of days?

However I must admit as much as I hate the move-out-clean (without moving out) and the enforced de-clutter sessions, after I'm done it feels so good. There is such a good energy in a clean and tidy abode, I just wish it could magically last. I always look around and vow to myself that this time I'm going to keep the place tidy! I am going to find homes for everything and everything will go back in it's place the second I've stopped using it!

Yeah that's gonna happen.

I dream of finding a place with more cupboards than I could possibly fill in a lifetime, with a kitchen fully equipped with a walk-in pantry, a separate room for my wardrobe (walk-ins just don't cut it), and shelving just everywhere. Then my home would have a place for everything and be totally clean and tidy 24/7.

I swear.

A live-in maid would also be awesome. If she worked for free.

I'll post some before-and-afters later so you can see the results of my hard work!

xx