One of the reasons I wanted to buy the house we live in now is because Husby and I could each have our own rooms. He could have his office and I could have my very own room. I didn’t have plans for my very own room, but to have one all to myself seemed so dreamy. I called it The East Wing.
After sixteen years of living in this house I’ve enjoyed The East Wing a lot. I decorated it the way I wanted and it was the perfect place to be all by myself if I wanted to be. There was one problem – oftentimes I used my precious East Wing as a place to stash things. Sometimes it got a little cluttered.
When I retired at the beginning of December I put three boxes and one grocery bag full of personals I had at the office in The East Wing. When it became time to decorate the house for Christmas I put the everyday knick-knacks in The East Wing to make room for the holiday decorations. Because of the mild autumn we had I didn’t rotate my summer and winter clothes until after I retired, so the tub full of summer clothes was also added to The East Wing.
The holiday season is so busy, and being newly retired I relished my newfound free time enough to waste it when I wasn’t planning parties, shopping, and wrapping presents. Christmas came and I piled many of my Christmas presents in The East Wing.
This is what The East Wing turned out to be since my retirement…
Then came the day I was determined to clear it out. “A place for everything and everything in its place,” as my dad used to say. I wanted my room back. I would conquer it no matter how long it took, despite the multitudes of dust bunnies I had to inhale. The East Wing should not be a storage closet! So to work I went.
What a marvelous and productive day it was! This is how The East Wing turned out…
It’s ready to be my reading room, my writing room, my I-need-to-get-away-from-the-world room, just as it was meant to be. The best thing about The East Wing? It’s right across the hall from Husby’s office where he spends a lot of his time. So close, but as far away as we want or need to be.