Good day to rid house of cobwebs and old medicine

It’s the day before Easter and all is calm. Family members arrived on Thursday for supper and an overnight. More family arrives tomorrow night for supper and a visit. Our home is located at the halfway point, like the stagecoach stops in days past. “Time for a bit of supp’ and a rest before we continue on, folks.” After all, Iowa is in the middle of the country. Sounds like a good research project: locate former stagecoach stops nearby. But for now, I have other work to do.

Today, we convinced the cobs to leave our home and take their webs with them. It’s amazing how many cobwebs suddenly appear in the corners near the ceiling, even in the closets. It was also a good day to stand at the linen closet with a wastebasket handy. The over-the-counter medicines are kept on an eye-level shelf. It’s safe. Our children are grown and the grandchildren are too short to reach the shelf. Today, I located the expiration dates on cold medicine and the like, then pitched them. The oldest date I found was 1999. I must have missed it last time I did this exercise. It was also a good time to toss all the half-empty bottles of hair conditioner. The shampoo is easily used up but the conditioner remains. Thinking I might some day by more shampoo of the same brand, I save the conditioner bottle. My husband won’t use them because they smell “girlie.” I read somewhere you should change your shampoo every six months, so I’m left with different brands of conditioner. Typically, the shampoo and conditioner are in the same size containers. I would be happier purchasing a conditioner half the size of the shampoo bottle.

After my cleaning, the shelf is left with Alka-Seltzer packets and foot lotion. The need for cold medicines for a variety of ages and ouch creams has passed. I appreciate that our days are calmer. It is what we work towards, right?