Purge.

I clean a little differently than most people. I've had this "difference of opinion" since I was young. I was about 8 or so and my pastor was coming over to the house to visit, so naturally, my mother told me to go clean my room. I pranced off on my merry little way to my room, turned on the radio and began cleaning my underwear drawer. I mean, my underwear and socks were mixed together! Some of my socks weren't even matched any more, the horror! I was plugging along, I had emptied my whole underwear and sock drawer and was beginning to put things back in. My day of the week underwear was now in order, white socks were with white socks, purple socks were with purple socks (I was eight, the 80s had just ended, cut me some slack alright?) and then my mom walks in. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?" she shrieked. I don't remember my reply but it probably would have had the effect of "cleaning, duh!" because I couldn't understand what she was freaking out about. I proudly showed her my vast accomplishments in cleaning the underwear drawer and she said "Do you honestly think Pastor is going to look in your underwear drawer?" At the age of 8, I was perfectly contempt with cleaning my underwear drawer and didn't see her point. At 28 (ohmygosh, has it really been twenty years?), I see her point, but still find satisfaction in cleaning my underwear drawer.

I've been staying at my mom's house the past two weeks and I still have tons of stuff here. In fact, there's boxes EVERYWHERE because I had to move stuff out of one location and had no where to put there. There's a small path to my bed and cleaning and relocating those boxes would be the easiest thing. However, something larger was weighing on my mind. Under my bathroom sink. I have been thinking about it non-stop for a week and how I need to go through the things down there and clean up. So tonight I finally did it and it was ridiculous how much I threw out. There was stuff that had been there since we moved in when I was in high school. I found two shoulder pads (not matching, naturally), FIVE curling irons, all in varying sizes, a hair product for every color I have had (red, blonde, brown) and about twenty different makeup/bath product bags. I got rid of all of the above, except the curling irons. I did, however, check to make sure they all work. I don't even want to admit how much I put in the trash can or even begin to think how much money just went in the trash can, but I feel SO much better that I know it is cleaned. I feel like it's the 2010 version of my underwear drawer. Anyone is welcome to come look at my new under the bathroom sink cabinets but I'm not sure it's that exciting!