…you clean up. It’s really one of the great benefits of having overnight guests or even just throwing a party: Suddenly you’re compelled to tackle all those “construction sites” around the house, as my brother likes to call them.

We have a house guest coming this weekend, which meant the guest room had to be cleaned up. A load of cardboard boxes had accumulated there as my husband loves to save those. (The man grew up in them, see story here.) But we had also dumped the contents of the linen closet on the guest bed as we had other work done in the house, and so it was time to weed through those contents before putting them back. It felt good to get rid of torn linens (why do those ever go back in the closet?). I also sorted frayed and faded towels and linens into clear garment bags and set them aside for when my kids go to camp. If it weren’t for that, I’d toss or donate them, but I figured out a while ago that those less than perfect sheets and towels are great for camp (see related blog post: What Goethe and Packing the Kids off to Summer Camp Have in Common). And now it feels even better to open the door to the linen closet and delight in orderly rows of contents and even a few empty shelves for when we have to retire our warmer blankets.

Oh, and I took the opportunity to finally install the new roller shades in the guest room. As I said, guests are a good thing, not only because it’s fun to have a friend visit, but also because stuff finally gets done around the house. Makes me wonder what I do all those other days when I’m not mounting roller shades?