If you have a spring cleaning, I suppose it follows that you should also have a fall cleaning. That’s what’s happening around here, anyways.
When Dad got home tonight, Ben (4) was telling him what we’d been up to. “We worked, pretty much,” he sighed. It was cute. 
The first sign that a revolution is under way was when Mom announced it was time to switch summer and winter clothes, rotate too-small clothes, etc. This is a several-day process that involves cleaning out dressers, sorting laundry, and organizing rubbermaid bins.
The system is undoubtedly flawed, but no one has been able to come up with a better solution so we struggle on! One of my brothers says the problem is too many clothes – if you only have 3 summer outfits and 3 winter outfits, they all fit in one dresser and you don’t have to worry about switching anything. He hasn’t managed to convince the females of that, though. 
I actually don’t have my summer/winter clothes switched yet – I think I’m the only one – that’s probably my project for the weekend. But don’t think that I haven’t been participating in the fall cleaning frenzy.
I cleaned my room, first of all. My brother asked if I was cleaning it because we were having friends over the next day. “I’m cleaning this room to protect my sanity,” I stated firmly. My nightstand, bookshelf, and dresser were all attacked. I’m serious, the ONLY thing left on the top of my dresser is a change jar. No knick-knacks, books, papers, purses – just wide open space. It’s downright American.
Then, I cleared off my bead table. Now my bead table has been in our basement pretty much since we moved here, usually in a state of complete disarray. I rarely use it anymore, and everything was so cluttered that it was practically useless as a work table anyway . . . so Mom decided it was time for the bead table to go.
The title ‘bead table’ might be a bit misleading. Yeah, it had beads on it, as well as the various bead tools I’ve collected. But it also was the dumping ground for magazines and craft books, scrap-booking paper and stickers, game pieces, pencils without lead, hair barrettes – I suppose the correct term would be a ‘junk table’.
The good news is, I have conquered the bead table. I have beads in one container, and scrap-booking supplies in another; both containers are now stowed in my closet, neatly organized for future use. The other miscellaneous items were put in their place, and . . . the bead table is gone. 
