I think I didn't make myself clear. I am really looking forward to this spring cleaning.

With all my heart, I long for organization, orderliness and (reasonable) cleanliness. I truly desire to bring some sense of reality out of the chaos created by the chaotic neurons in my husband's mind, resulting in dirt and mess in the house and in the yard.

I can't find the time and energy to do it after working all day, making dinner and keeping him company for a couple of hours before bedtime.

I can't find the time to do it on the weekends, which are filled with errands, shopping, laundry, cooking and the week-to-week running of the household.

So I really look forward to taking a week off from work, rolling up my sleeves (literally as well as metaphorically) and cleaning, organizing, putting away, throwing out. The last item? It has to be done surreptitiously. My husband never met a clutter he didn't want to keep--and keep it exactly as it is, where it is.

It gets bizarre after a while, as (for instance) the dog likes to chew on old envelopes but my house mate can't bring himself to throw them out. And goes into a rage if I do it.

But I find I can make headway if I hide the throwaways in plastic bags and tie them and toss them in the trash (wasting bags, I know, but...). I'm still not sure how I'm going to deal with unwanted books, since he notices when a book has been moved from spot A to position B, let alone that it's missing.

And I rue the day he discovered that he can order stuff through the internet, have it delivered, and add it to the general confusion. I know it's his dementia taking over, but I try, anyway, to reason with him.

Bottom line: I expect to make major progress in the cleaning and de-cluttering arena this coming week and I'm really looking forward to being able to sit down the last weekend in March and enjoying my clean, semi-organized house. I'll actually take an afternoon to do just that, because in a week or so it will be back to "normal".

Don't think about that part....