Spring Cleaning Summary

Over the last two weeks I have done a lot of Spring Cleaning and I have to say that I’ve enjoyed it. I’m one of those people who isn’t crazy about the actual cleaning, but I love to organize and clean stuff out. It always feels so good to get rid of items you no longer need or want. And we can certainly use the space in our house. I am very glad that Simple Mom had her Spring Cleaning Party and that I decided to join.

While I didn’t manage to get everything done that I wanted to, I did get a very good start on it. Yesterday I posted a list of 13 areas in my home that I still need to clean out and organize. Last night I even managed to get started on that list. While my daughter was taking her bath I got our medicine cabinet cleaned out and organized. I actually had some medicine in there that had expired in 2006. Wow! I started cleaning under the bathroom sink, but it didn’t get finished. I will work on that some more during Pumpkin’s next bath.

My goal is to complete at least one item from my list a week. I figure at that rate I’ll get finished around the end of summer. That should be just in time to start it all again. If there’s one thing I’ve learned since I moved into my house, it’s that the need to purge “stuff” never ends. So to help keep me going with the cleaning and to hold me accountable, I plan to start doing a weekly post detailing what I have cleaned or organized that week. Along the way I will also be posting any tips and tricks I’ve found to help with organizing all the “stuff” that we do keep. And if you have any tips or tricks you want to share, feel free to leave them in the comments. I’m always looking for new and better ways to organize.

How do you feel about cleaning and organizing? Is it something you dread or something you enjoy?

Spring Cleaning My Desk

My work area consists of two desks right next to each other. This is the area where I work on my computer, pay bills and do pretty much anything else that needs to be done at a desk. As you can see in my before pictures the area had gotten a it out of control. For some reason my desk and office area seem to be the catch all place for assorted "stuff" that doesn't have a permanent home. I'm working on remedying that so if you have any suggestions for preventing another pile up in this area, please let me know.

I decided that this area was in desperate need of a spring cleaning. So I completely cleaned off all the surfaces. Some of the items did make it back on to the top of the writing desk, but nowhere near as many as were up there before. I even dusted off both desks.

It's so nice having a clean surface to work at now. I really hope to keep it that way. And honey, that means you can't go leaving your stuff on my desks anymore either.

I also kept track of the items from on and around my desk that I got rid of while cleaning up today. Here's the list:

• 36 Magazines - These will go to my work where they will join the magazine swap.
• 19 Books - These will go to the used bookstore to earn me a little extra money. Anything they don't buy will get donated to charity.
• 8 Pairs of Children's Shoes - Off to charity
• 5 Candle Holders - Off to charity
• 1 DVD Burner - I'm going to try to sell this. If it doesn't sell, off to charity it goes.
• 1 Small Box of Assorted Stuff - Off to charity
• 1 Bag of Trash - This was a 13 gallon size kitchen bag. That's a lot of trash for this small area.

It definitely feels good to get rid of so much stuff that we haven't been using. It's just cluttering up our house and stressing me out whenever I try to work at my desk. So bye bye stuff.

To check out more Spring Cleaning posts, head over to Simple Mom.

To check out more posts on cleaning off a surface, head over to Organizing Junkie. Her monthly challenge is to clean off one surface in your house. From all the participants, five random winners will be selected to receive a copy of Gail Blanke's Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life. How cool is that?

You can find the monthly round up post with links to those who participated in Organizing Junkie's surface cleaning challenge here.

Spring Cleaning Pumpkin's Room

Pumpkin's Room is one of the hardest for me to clean. This is simply because I usually do my cleaning while she is napping. Since I don't want to wake her, I can't clean her room while she's napping. So here is what her room looked like before I started cleaning. The basket of laundry is clean, I just hadn't found time to get it put away. Sad, I know.

And here are the after pictures. The foam board behind her changing table is there because she likes to pull at the wall decals. She already ripped Scooby so we put the board up. Once she is done with the changing table, we will remove the foam board and the decals will hopefully be safe.

And her dresser. This is another spot that tends to collect a lot of "stuff".

I am so glad that I was able to finally get some work done in Pumpkin's room. As part of the Spring Cleaning I also switched out her clothes. We had to move out the winter stuff and the stuff that was too small and bring in the stuff that fits and is good for spring and summer. We have a ton of clothes going in to storage now. Plus I finally got the humidifier and heater out of there.

I'm amazed at how many old toys and outgrown clothes we got out of Pumpkin's room. There are two tubs and one of those XXL Ziploc bags full of stuff heading to storage. And that doesn't include the stuff we got rid of. What is it with kid's stuff? I think it multiplies when nobody is looking.

To see more posts on Spring Cleaning and read what Simple Mom has to say about cleaning kids rooms, head over to Simple Mom.

To see more Tackle It Tuesday, head over to 5 Minutes For Mom.

Spring Cleaning The Bathroom

My poor bathroom was a mess. This room tends to really get neglected and the "stuff" piles up on the counter. Here is a before picture. Try not to be too grossed out. We tend to leave the cleansers and all the other stuff that Pumpkin shouldn't get into in the bathroom because its the one room in the house with a safety on the door knob so she can't get in. You can see the results of that.
And here is the picture after about an hour of cleaning:

First I had to clean off the counter and put everything away. Some of the cleaners are still in there, but they have a new home in the cabinet. Then I scrubbed. My bathroom is now squeaky clean and I'm loving it. I actually told Hubby that he isn't allowed to use the bathroom because he will get it dirty. Yeah, not very practical of me, but I want to enjoy it as long as I can. And from now on I'm going to try and straighten up the bathroom when Pumpkin takes her baths. Hopefully that will work well for us.

For more posts about Spring Cleaning and too see what Simple Mom has to say about Spring Cleaning The Bathrooms, head over to Simple Mom.

Spring Cleaning Day 4

I have been doing my Spring Cleaning the day before I post it. Since I work full time outside of the house it’s just easier for me that way. Well, yesterday I worked all day and immediately after work I had a class to attend. That means I didn’t get home until half an hour before I usually go to bed. There was no time for cleaning or blogging last night. I have some obligations tonight too so I don’t know that I’ll get much cleaning done tonight, but I will certainly try. I do have plans for getting some serious cleaning to be done this weekend so look for some more good spring cleaning posts and pictures next week.

All of this Spring Cleaning has even gotten me to do a little cleaning at work. Yesterday I took a few minutes to clean out two of my desk drawers. First was the drawer where all my pens, post-its, business cards and assorted small stuff get stored. That drawer was a mess. So I got rid of a few things and reorganized it. The drawer is so much neater now. I love it. The second drawer had lots of papers and envelopes. I was able to throw some of those out and got the rest organized. Now the drawer is a lot neater and I should be able to find what I need a lot easier now. There is still more cleaning to do, but I can’t exactly spend the whole day cleaning. I figured I would try to tackle a drawer every other day or so. It depends on how hectic each day is.

I also wanted to address some of the questions Simple Mom has posted as part of her Spring Cleaning Party.

Monday’s Question:

Am I feeling emotional about any of this stuff? If so, why? Do those knickknacks create your memories, or are they just things you happened to collect during those times on which you enjoy reflecting?

There are a few things I have that I do have an emotional attachment too. I feel that I am fairly normal in that sense. All in all, I don’t have an emotional attachment to most of my stuff. I’m not a big knickknack person as I don’t like to have a lot of things to dust around. I did like the idea that someone posted on Simple Mom’s site of keeping pictures of things you have an attachment to instead of the actual items. Depending on the item this may or may not work for you, but personally I am all for things that decrease the amount of clutter in my house.

Tuesday’s Question:

How easy or challenging it is for you to keep only those things that are either useful or beautiful to your family?

I don’t tend to hand on to things that are no longer useful to me. There have even been a few times where I have gotten rid of something an a few weeks later I could have used it. Still, we survived and worked around it in those situations. I don’t like having a lot of clutter in my house even though you can’t always tell that by looking at it. My husband saves things more then me, but he usually isn’t too bad.

Wednesday’s Question:

What’s your style? As you’ve decluttered, cleaned, and organized, have you explored your different tastes in decor? I’m curious if you’ve enjoyed the more minimal look in your living room, with your surfaces emptier.

The décor in our house is an interesting blend of hubby’s tastes and mine. I like simple, traditional looks and hubby has added some interesting pieces to our collections. (Did you see the masks and sarcophagus in our living room?) All in all I like our look. Personally I don’t care for the surfaces to be minimal looking. I like it when a house has a lived in a feel. The model home look is fine for model homes, but I don’t want to live in that kind of environment.

Thursday’s Question:

What do you love about your kitchen? What one thing do you most want to change?

I love the size of my kitchen there is plenty of room to work and I also have a nice bay window in there so I get lots of natural light. The one thing that I most want to change is the amount of counter space and storage I have. To add some counter space and storage we wound up getting a kitchen cart. I love that I can roll it over to where I’m working and the back flips up for even more counter space, but I still don’t have enough storage. Since I tend to stockpile we have two cabinets and set of shelves where we have various long term food stuffs stored.

So how have you done on your spring cleaning this week? To see how others are doing and find more pictures, head over to Simple Mom’s Spring Cleaning Day 4 post.

Spring Cleaning - The Living Room

I finally decided to do some Spring Cleaning in the Living Room. In case you didn't know it before, I do have a toddler so there are lots of toys in these pictures. The living room is her main play area as we spend most of our time on this level of the house. So, here are the before pictures of my living room.

Yeah, there were toys EVERYWHERE! My daughter is 17 months old so we are starting to work with her on putting her toys away, but she still doesn't get it. As a result, mommy and daddy wind up putting away most of the toys (or not).

Here are the after pictures:

Yes, there are still a lot of toys in our living room, but now they are all neatly put away. At least until my daughter wakes up again. Sigh! Sadly, this isn't even a third of her toys. We rotate her toys out so that she has an ever changing assortment. Luckily most of these toys were gifts or hand me downs. It does make for a hard time storing them all though. For now, we keep most of the toys in the toy box with some of the larger toys around the room. I think I have pretty much come to terms with the fact that our living room will be a play room for the next 10 years or so.

Have you done any Spring Cleaning this week? I have to say that I'm very glad that I'm getting things cleaned up around here. Even if they don't seem to stay clean for very long. We have a couple boxes ready to be donated and this week we filled our trash can. Thank goodness yesterday was trash day because I'm sure I will be getting rid of even more stuff as the week goes on.

To see more Spring Cleaning posts, head over to Simple Mom's Spring Cleaning Party Day 3 post.

Spring Cleaning the Kitchen

As you can see by my before pictures, my kitchen was in need of a good spring cleaning. I would like to say that my kitchen isn't normally quite this bad. I had guests over for dinner the night before and got a little lazy with the cleanup since I knew I would be Spring Cleaning in there in the morning. Lazy, I know, but I was tired and didn't feel like cleaning.

And yes, I do keep the play pen setup in my kitchen. When I'm the only one home and I'm cooking I feel much better if my daughter is in her play pen there. I try to avoid this by cooking when she's napping or when someone else is home, but that doesn't always work. Hence, the play pen taking up a large portion of my kitchen.

And now for the after pictures:

Here's a brief summary of what I did:

• clean and put away all dishes
• clean off and wipe down counters & pass thru ledge
• scrub stove, microwave, dishwasher, toaster and fridge
• wipe down flour, sugar and tea canisters
• clean off and wipe down kitchen cart
• clean off and wipe down bakers rack
• scrub floor
• take out trash and wipe down trash can
• clean out play pen and change the sheet
• scrub sink
• wipe down the walls

I think that's everything, but I could have missed something. There was a lot to do in there. I do still want to go through the pantry, but that can wait for another day. It's so nice have a clean and shiny kitchen now. It's so much nicer cooking in a clean kitchen.

This post is being linked to:

• Simple Mom's Spring Cleaning Party Day 2
• 5 Minutes For Mom Tackle It Tuesday
• Lazy Organizer's Talk About It Tuesday

Spring Cleaning Party - Day 1 The Entry

Today is Day 1 of Simple Mom's Spring Cleaning Party. I have to say that I'm excited to finally be bringing order to my house. It won't be easy because our schedules are very full this week, but I have done some things ahead of time and will definitely be taking more time this week to get more done. I really NEED to get my house cleaned up.

For the first day I decided to clean up my entry way. It's a small space that tends to collect lots of stuff. As you can see in my before picture (below) the bench and table tend to get piled up.

Here is my after picture:

The bench and table have been completed cleaned off. I even cleaned out the bins under the bench and the bins in the coat closet. And yes, we even vacuumed up the dog hair. The only think sitting on the bench is a bag that I took out to my car on my next trip out.

I am so happy that I was able to get this area cleaned up. Since it's the first thing you see when you walk in the house I feel its important to keep it cleaned (even if I don't always manage to do that).

To see what everyone else is cleaning today, head over to Simple Mom and check out the links.

I'm Joining the Spring Cleaning Party at Simple Mom

Lately all my energy has been going into fighting a cold and sinus infection. AS a result, the cleanliness and organization of my house have suffered. So when I saw that Simple Mom is having a Spring Cleaning Party, I jumped at the chance to join. You can look forward to posts of my cleaning and straightening around our house. Here are the topics and the days for posting:

• Monday, May 4 – A Clean Sweep
• Tuesday, May 5 – The Living Room, Part 1
• Wednesday, May 6 – The Living Room, Part 2
• Thursday, May 7 – The Kitchen, Part 1
• Friday, May 8 – The Kitchen, Part 2
• Monday, May 11 – The Bathrooms
• Tuesday, May 12 – Pumpkin’s Room
• Wednesday, May 13 – My Office
• Thursday, May 14 – The Master Bedroom
• Friday, May 15 – The Front Entry

For the party the topics for May 12 and 13 are the kid’s rooms part 1 and part 2. Since I only have one child I decided to dedicate one day to her and the other day to the other bedroom which we are using as an office.

If you’re interested in participating too, head over to Simple Mom to read her post on the Spring Cleaning Party. I know I’m looking forward to a cleaner house. Now I just need to get better so I can clean properly.