Cleaning

I have come to the conclusion that I could spend every minute of my time away from work and sleep cleaning, and my house would still not be spotless. After all, I have 3 children (and we all know how much most children enjoy cleaning...they jump for joy, always pick up after themselves, and volunteer to scrub the toilet ;)) and a husband, who is wonderful to ask me what I want done, and to do anything I ask him to, but is not an intuitive cleaner.

I come from a long line of cleaners, some of them compulsive cleaners. I still remember that growing up, on Saturdays during the school year and every day but Sunday during the summer, I was not allowed to go into my bedroom after the carpet had been vacuumed. After all, the perfect "lines" from the vacuum couldn't be messed up. I hated it, but that's the way my mom was raised. As I got older, however, she loosened up about that, and by high school we were in a new house, with a berber carpet, and that relaxed my mom about the carpet. However, the house was always spotless. I rebelled when Cole and I got married. Not about the clean, but I got into the habit of not worrying about the clutter. Now, I look at my clutter spots in frustration.

I decided to use some of my precious time off these last couple of days to do some deep cleaning. Yesterday, I focused on my guest bathroom and my laundry closet. The guest bathroom gets a "surface clean" of the toilet, sink, and counters fairly often, but since we rarely use the shower, it gets ignored. I scrubbed the tub, the floors, the walls and switches...as well as the "surface" stuff. The laundry closet is one of my clutter spots...it seems that everything that is headed for the garage gets put there, everything that comes out of the wash(that doesn't belong) gets put there....now it's clean again. For now, I know our family too well to think it will stay spotless....

Today I focused on the fridge and freezer. I usually try to pull everything out and clean them every few months. It took on a new urgency this last week, because the chicken nuggets popped open as I pulled them out the other night, spilling crumbs everywhere. Then, last Wednesday, Kyle was putting the milk delivery away, and the grape Koolaid spilled. He got it all off the floor, but didn't realize it was ALL OVER the inside of the fridge too. (I was very impressed, however that there was no stickiness on the floor after the spill...he really did a good job).

So, I pulled EVERYTHING out of the fridge today, washed all the shelves, drawers, walls...it took all morning.

From March 2010

(I'm also embarrassed to say that I had to throw away a full garbage bag of expired foods from the fridge and freezer. I should be better at keeping it organized...what a waste of $)

Of course, the after feels SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GREAT!!!!

From March 2010

It took me all morning. I also discovered a few spills under the drawers that I knew nothing about...I vacuumed under the fridge as well.

Now, my sheets are in the wash, and the blankets are next...

Cleaning is a work in progress. I am going to play a little this afternoon, though....