For the past several years–definitely since COVID–I had been using my guest room as a hoarder room. With no guests staying over, it was the perfect place to store stuff. I had so many piles of things stacked by the door that, whenever I ventured deeper inside, I always knocked something over with my feet. One of the jobs I have undertaken since retiring is decluttering. At first I started with going over old Scrabble score sheets. This is a job that I have only just begun yet I have already reviewed dozens of past games. I have put the knowledge to good use, as some of my post-retirement games have used words and anagram knowledge I gleaned from those old score sheets.
Scrabble is also the reason behind my guest room cleanup. For the first time since COVID, I will be having a houseguest. Dave Postal, our friend from Palm Springs who hosted the Jack Eichenbaum Memorial Racker Scrabble Tournament, will be coming to town at the end of the month and will be catching a few Jays & Yankees games. Since Mark and I will be away in Halifax the week before he arrives, I needed to start the cleanup before we left.
I wanted to leave nothing on the floor except the furniture. It took me a week to sort through everything, then vacuum and dust. The most productive day was last Friday since it rained all morning and afternoon. I used to have the bed against the wall and the loveseat under the window. I decided to move the loveseat so that when guests sat down they were no longer looking at a plain white wall and could look out the window instead. There is now so much space in front of the end table that when Christmas rolls around I can set up a Christmas tree there. What a sight that would be, to see a lit tree in that room every time I go upstairs. For years I had kept the door of the guest room closed, to hide the mess from everyone, including myself. As long as I keep the room free of clutter I can keep the door open.
