My apartment is a wreck

No really. A huge, gigantic wreck.

Part of it is my work schedule (or lack thereof?), part of it is poor planning on my part.

I’m still on overnights — which really should give me all day to clean my apartment — but somehow that’s not really working out for me. A little over a month ago Work launched a new newscast. While they were working out who would produce it full-time, I got to be a guinea pig. That meant moving my schedule up by an hour and a half — just as I was getting the whole sleep routine down pat.

So for the past six weeks, I’ve lived off of about 4 hours of sleep a day and Sugar-Free Red Bull. Now, I know you must be thinking, “But Bonnie, doesn’t that give  you MORE time to clean?” Technically you’re right. But I spend most of my day completely exhausted in bed trying to sleep. Trying is the key word — apparently I’m not dedicated enough to my REM cycle.

Luckily, on Monday I get to go back to my old writing schedule. Mixed feelings about it, but overall happy.

Still, I can’t completely blame the schedule at Work — I’ve gone out of town WAY too much. I’ve taken something like 5 trips in the past 8 weeks — granted, one was a funeral, another was to spend time with my sister and aunt, and another was a wedding. Boyfriend also came to visit one of the weeks I stayed in town, and I spent the other two doing laundry at my parents house. I have three half-packed suitcases, and 2 baskets of clean clothes lying around my apartment — the largest currently creating some sort of deathtrap in my entryway/kitchen. Thank God I’ve hoarded enough clothes to last me a good six months without doing laundry, and the seasons changed.

I was really looking forward to this weekend — no flying, driving or entertaining. Perfect weekend to spend cleaning and relaxing.

Instead, I work Saturday and only have Sunday off.

When it’s been this long in between cleaning marathons, I really, really like spending a whole day cleaning when it’s been this long — and also go through closets/bookshelves to get rid of junk I don’t need. But it’s sort of hard to fathom giving up my One Day Off to cleaning… so I’m going to do something Scary — listen to my parents.

No really, if they read this, they’d say, “Bonnie, just do a little each day. It’ll be easier.”

So I’m dedicating the next hour before I have to get ready for work to unpacking and straightening up.

Tomorrow I’ll tackle trading sweaters and pants out for tank-tops and shorts stored in boxes.

Saturday I clean out closets and bookshelves, Sunday I CLEAN.

Then again, I also swore I would update this blog regularly. And we can see how well that plan is going.

I was talking to a friend the other day — and she said something that made me think — the cleanliness of your apartment affects your mood. Or maybe it was that it reflects your mood. Whichever — she’s right. I’ve been feeling stressed and scattered and generally blah for the past few weeks. So, maybe cleaning will change that?