Yes, that’s right, you all thought no one noticed there wasn’t a June thread, eh? Well, just like you think no one notices the greasy grunge on the top of your fridge, you were wrong! So let’s dust ourselves off and get back on the wagon, folks!
I’ve got another party on Friday (my son graduated 8th grade), so I’m doing a Deep Clean this week. We’re tackling one room at a time, and going the whole 9 yards - cleaning walls, upholstery, picture frames and all that junk. I goggled up some tips and pointers to guide us, and found some great links at About.com. Check 'em out:
And, of course, the cornerstone of keeping any home clean: the reducing clutter system. This gal does a 4 box system instead of my nominal three - when I think about it, she’s right. “Storage” is a must, as well as “Toss, Keep and Sell”. Conquering Clutter: the 4 Container Method.
So it’s the Intense Living Room Clean Up for the WhyHouse today, starting at Noon. I’ll let you know how long it takes. The living room in our place is in the best shape, which is why we’re starting there - if we tackle our kitchen right off, we’ll be too discouraged to do more tomorrow!
Tuesday afternoon we do my place. This time it has to get clean because I’m trying to get a home equity loan to build a garage and I need an appraisal. The whole house. The WHOLE house, including the office.
Hey, at least I have air, and Aaron is taking all his shit out of the guest bedroom. He’s trying to get me to get rid of the guest bedroom, too. I see his point but I just can’t not have one.
Now that school’s done, I’m going to try to do some projects. Over the weekend we did a pretty big cleanup, but now it looks wrecked again. The schoolroom is the worst–we spent Friday morning putting the books away, throwing out junk, and clearing it up, so the kids promptly started big messy projects!
My new resolution is to hit the gym every morning before showering; we’ll see how it works out.
So, the living room took about 4 hours, all told. It smells great in there - Murphy’s Oil Soap rocks.
It’s the Dining Room/Office/Craft Room/Play room (all one room) for us today. There’s a metric buttload of papers to be filed, and a week’s worth of yogurt encrusted Cheerios to get up off the hardwood under the baby’s eating spot. (I swear I look for them after she’s done eating, and they’re not there. I think she saves them like an addict tonguing her meds and plants them when my back is turned!)
So far so good today. I’m also trying to organize our social calendar for the next few weeks, which looks very hectic. Our main plan is to relax and play with friends a lot, but that means I have to call everyone and set things up. And I want to throw an ice-cream party next week to kick off the summer, so I’m planning that. Oh, and I’m trying to work more, because things got so busy in the last few months that I haven’t worked at all. Whew!
I did enjoy working out this morning though–it’s still nice and cool-ish outside, and I can go home and shower. I hope to keep it up most weekdays.
Anyway how much does that have to do with housekeeping? Not much. Today I’ve changed sheets and towels and am doing lots of laundry!
The termite guy was just here doing an inspection. We’re all clear, but he saw the spot where ant poison did funny things to the plaster in the bathroom, and we poked at it and it squished. The bathroom was the next important project anyway, but I’m scared to death that it will turn out that the whole wall is rotten and the shower has to come out. My husband pointed out that life would still go on, which was actually something of a surprise to me! Compared to, say, foreclosure–my in-laws told us yesterday that they’re losing their house–I guess it’s not so bad.
Yes, I’m upset about the foreclosure too, but we’ve expected it for some time now.
I turned in my thesis. I defend in just under two weeks.
Needless to say, that’s all I’ve been doing. I’ve unpacked some of my stuff, but not enough. I’m going to rearrange the house tonight, so I can unpack more.
I will report back as things go on, but I will probably not be reporting much until next month’s thread.
I’m glad to see that others are also still working, and getting things done. Good luck to every one!