Fresh Starts.

This is my friend Ruth. She's moving.

We've been talking about the move a lot, and I have to say, while moving's an enormous pain, it's also the best. Everything is empty, and blank, and then you get to fill it in with all your things. Find new places for items and remember things you love. It's so refreshing and exciting to start a new phase of your life. I have to admit I got a little jealous so I did the next best thing. I rearranged my bedroom.

Whenever I need to deep clean, I tend to couple it with a rearrange. I don't think moving the bed to get all the dust animals out from under it just to push it right back where it came from is very fun. Then after you've chosen a new place for the bed, the rest of the stuff needs an overhaul too.

I also like to go through the drawers and shelves and reorder everything. I like to color code my closet and move the stuff on the night stand to the bookcase to the dresser. I think it's fun to go through forgotten books and magazines and flip through pages and then put them back again, in a new place freshly organized. Plus it's so great to throw stuff away! I think it feels good to rest your eyes on a new home, to learn just a slightly different routine. The first couple of times you wake up, you don't know for a second where you are. It's kind of like being on vacation.

PS Don't forget to flip your mattress.