A nice little break.

Hubster and I went out on a date for the first time in months last night. Bugster watched Hopper and Scooter, so we could go out and relax and also agreed to guest blog for me. I can't tell you how incredibly grateful I am for her help! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and it was just nice to be away from everything else. I'm glad we had the time with one another, because it will be several months before we get that time again. We just need a break from reality from time to time.

I started a major project when I woke up yesterday, and it was hard to leave it for the time we were gone for fear of losing momentum. It's been years and years in the making, but it switched locations last year when the basement flooded. I'm talking about...laundry. Not just ordinary laundry. I'm talking years and years of laundry that's built up. Well. Sort of.

I have a tendency towards perfectionism. A strong leaning, even. I think it comes partly from hearing, "If you can't do it right, don't do it at all!" when I was growing up. That has been my personal mantra on so very many occasions. It's why I don't take on something new until I can see the outcome in my mind. It's why I obsess about pinatas before I make them, why I fluff our clothes in the dryer before hanging them to dry, and why I am in the mess I'm in. It's why I don't do a lot of things, and it can be maddening.

This particular project I started at least 8 to 9 years ago was laundry, but not just your everyday garden variety of laundry. This was the sort-each-piece-of-laundry-and-make-sure-it's-clean-before-packing-it-up-to-donate-or-save-but-it-must-all-be-clean-before-sorting-may-begin-kind-of-laundry. I cannot tell you how many times I have started this laundry over the years. I've washed it only to forget about it and be frustrated to find it covered in dust and have to be washed again. But this is the last time.

Hopper's bedroom became a catchall when the basement was flooded last year. For some reason, the people who packed things up and took them out to the storage pod when they were cleaning put all these baskets of laundry in Hopper's room. I'm thankful in many ways. At least they're not sitting out in the heat of the pod cooking in stains and odors, but it also means I need to take on the task of finishing it up, so Hopper can get back into her bedroom, or I have to move it again. I voted for option 1.

So I brought all of the baskets and boxes of clothes out of Hopper's room and began to sort them Saturday morning. There were 5 of the 18 gallon totes (like the ones I emptied on the porch the other day), 3 large laundry baskets of clothes, and 2 boxes. I know. It was as lot. I'm not sure why I was even surprised at the amount, but I was. Anyway, I got busy sorting, washing, and hanging the clothes out to dry on the line.

Thankfully, only some of them needed washed. About half. And most of those are still waiting for me to wash them, dry them, fold them and put them in their proper places whether the proper place is the trash, the donation pile, or the save box. It's going to take a few days, but if the weather holds up, and we don't get too much rain, I'll be able to get most of them done tomorrow and will hopefully be finished up on Tuesday.

I already sorted the ones that didn't need washed. Right now, we have right at 20 grocery bags stuffed and ready to be donated. They just need to be loaded in the car and dropped off. I figured I'll wait until the rest of the clothes are ready before loading the car, but I'm very much looking forward to getting them out of my house!

One thing that's obvious about the clothes is that they have dog dander on them. I've been sneezing and wheezing the entire time I've been working on them. I know part of the sneezing and wheezing has to do with the brilliant move one of the workers who helped clean out the basement after the flood made. They put some wet clothes in a black plastic bag, put more stuff on top of the bag, so the clothes had no way to breathe and actually dry out and no choice but to grow mold and mildew in cosmic proportions, and then put it in the bedroom. I found it yesterday.

Yeah. So *that* was a fun discovery. I'm just hoping it doesn't prevent me from going in for my surgery this week. I'd rather just get the procedure over with, but I'm not sure, if the doctor will be comfortable putting me under with my asthma acting up. I'll be taking Bendadryl again tonight before heading off to bed. I'm hoping it might help the situation.

Oh! I almost forgot! That huge bag of clothes from the porch as well as the bag of shoes? Listing them on Craigslist was the perfect answer.

They're in their new homes.

They're no longer my problem.

Best of all?

They're no longer here!

Victory, I say! Victory!