Amazing, really, how things accumulate underneath beds. You just don’t see them. In the picture, I see shoeboxes, presents, an old computer, a yoga belt, a new set of sheets, a basket of miscellaneous objects that have been in that basket for the past 10 years, plus various other things I can’t identify from this angle. Only the presents are current, merely awaiting the proper birthday -- although they really should go on the special shelves in the basement where presents-to-be are supposed to go. Possibly the new sheets could be considered current, if I ever remember them when it’s time to the change the bed. Many bed changings have come and gone since the sheets were bought, and there they are yet.
Under the bed used to be a lot worse, but last Fall, when Joe was off for two weeks hunting in Illinois, I took advantage and rearranged the bedroom. Even when Joe hunts locally, he is gone from before dawn until after dark during hunting season. I call myself a hunting widow, and I love that season. Now, don’t get me wrong. I do love my husband. I do love being married. I do love daily companionship and all that. But I also enjoy brief seasonal periods of “unmarried” time as well. I am a different person when alone, not better or worse, just different. And, being alone in the house is highly conducive for tasks like rearranging furniture or emptying out closets. During the great bedroom revamp, I did clean out many, many things from under the bed. Many went straight to Goodwill, others just found better places to live. “Clean out” is also a relevant phrase because when there is a lot of junk under the bed, you cannot clean. The amount of dust under and behind the bed was truly awesome. I’m not sure I would have posted a picture of that stupendous, but embarrassing dust. I am sort of sure that it’s probably not at all healthy to have that much dust in a bedroom. In any event, cleaning out under the bed was the last undertaking of the great bedroom revamp and I ran out of steam just as I was finishing. Or perhaps I ran out of time as Joe was about to return. So I just shoved what remained unsorted or rehoused right back under the bed, where it has remained out of sight and out of mind ever since.
