When Spring comes, I’m so busy getting gardens ready for the blooming season that I frequently don’t have the chance to get all the heavy cleaning done. So, rather than fight it, I do my Spring cleaning in November. In the 16 years we have been in this house, we’ve hosted my family’s Thanksgiving dinner 12 or 13 times. Before they come, the entire house is cleaned. We wash windows and carpets, curtains, and the linens for the tables. We wash all the china and crystal, and clean all the decorations in the house. Everything is dusted, and the lampshades are vacuumed. We wash the quilts (or at least those which aren’t antiques.) Furniture is moved, and closets and drawers are cleaned and reorganized. We even change the wreaths, so that the appropriate season is represented.<\/p>\n
\nThis year, one of my nieces is giving me a hand with the heavy cleaning. It has taken her thirteen hours to clean the living room, dining room, the kitchen and the casual dining area off the kitchen. I still have to reorganize some of the kitchen cabinets end get on a ladder to clean a sofit. Her work has allowed me to sort and organize.
\nWe emptied out the shelves in the entertainment center. She reorganized things, grouping them more logically, and gave me the job of sorting through all the papers and magazines that had been hidden there. The house has been filled with dust. We’re all just a bit more sneezy than usual, but everything is coming together nicely.
\nMy niece’s philosophy is, if you haven’t used it in a year, it goes! I’m not quite as stringent about that rule as she is, but I’m getting better every day! *G* Today I was working on shifting to my winter wardrobe, and cleaning out the closet. I’m perhaps three-quarters of the way through the chore, and I have a bin of clothes to donate, and three bags of things to throw out. I have one long plastic bin filled with summer clothes, and a second one filled with clothing one size smaller that I can’t bring myself to throw out. (After all….just 15 or 20 pounds and I should be able to wear all of it, right??)
\nI had stacks of turtlenecks and mock turtlenecks on the bed. I decided that I would try them on before putting them into the closet, to be sure they fit. I weeded a few more out, and then grouped them by color to be washed before I put them away. I still have a stack of sweaters to try on.
\nThe biggest problem that remains is….how do I get all this stuff into the closet??
\nStorage of sweaters is the problem. After I wash down the shelves, I’m going to see if most of them can’t be stored folded flat. Perhaps I can move some things to higher shelves, or to storage under the bed. My brother is so well trained that his clothes are in a closet in another room, so that his wife can have the entire master bedroom closet. I wonder if I could spring that on Dear Husband??
\nTomorrow morning, I’ll finish with the closet. Monday or Tuesday I hope to clean out the drawers in the dressing room. Wednesday, the carpet guy comes, and a week later the outside windows will be washed.
\nWe are either the cleanest or the dirtiest people you know! *G*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Spring comes, I’m so busy getting gardens ready for the blooming season that I frequently don’t have the chance to get all the heavy cleaning done. So, rather than fight it, I do my Spring cleaning in November. In … Continue reading