I've been trying to reorganize closets and cabinets because still being confined I find the walls are closing in on me and we've collected too much "stuff" for this size house.  Closets and shelves are over-packed with Covid supplies.  A few days ago I decided to tackle the closet in the small bedroom which holds my yoga capris, a few jackets, and boxes of shoes, Spring curtains, and probably other items we haven't used since moving here.  Whenever I pulled out a shoe box, I'd notice what seemed like crumbled dead leaves on the boxes and on the floor.  As I filed through the hangers choosing which outfits to keep and which to place in the thrift-store bag, I found the answer to the crumbled dead leaves.

Dead leaves.  In the fall I always harvest lots of herbs to dry.  Most of them were hung near the washer/dryer and other places out of the sunlight to dry slowly.  After a few weeks I'd crush the leaves, store the dried herbs in jars, label and date the jars and place them in the kitchen cabinet.  Last fall I thought I'd try drying parsley and holy basil in the front bedroom closet where it's dark and dry.  They certainly were dry and ready to be crushed and stored.

I crushed and stored some in jar that was started in October and started a new jar.  

Cleaning the closet then led to cleaning three small drawers in the small unit beside my recliner.

This cleaning was actually an accident. The three drawers hold our manuals, warranties, instruction booklets, etc. and when I opened the top drawer to put another manual in, it wouldn't fit.  No room in drawer number two or drawer three.  Do you realized how many items in our homes have manuals, warranties, installation instructions, schematics, "keep for your records" instructions,etc.  These are as perplexing as the number of keys that are outdated but are still on key rings. Cliff helped me go through each drawer, sorting, reading, checking dates and then made a discard stack and a keep stack. Some of the papers were brought from Florida but we no longer owned the appliance or the items.  That was a tedious task.

Job well done...............................

It's dark and dreary again.  Temperature is 42 degrees.  To keep from going stir-crazy, I've started dreaming and planning the spring gardens.  

Collard greens sprouted in the recycled strawberry plastic clam shell. I'm surprised anything sprouted because we haven't have enough sun. It peeks through the grey clouds, then disappears.  I'll try transplanting some in the plastic covered kitchen garden near the porch and see if they make it.  Adapt or perish.  Seeing little green sprouts keeps my spirits up in this crazy life we have now.