Spring Cleaning-along 2012!

[daircroi]

I scrubbed my floors by hand. I am incredibly proud of myself, both that I did it and that I was able to clear all the clutter so that I could. Woohoo!

Still lots of clutter/clothes hanging around in the bedroom, but I've sent bags and bags to Goodwill, and it feels SO. NICE. to be rid of many things!
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And it was messy, but we were drunk. Story of my life, I guess? --oohlala

[bookselves]

Having seasonal depression means that I somehow skipped the "prepping outside for winter" thing - there were dead plants in plant pots everywhere in my yard. Gross. Also my neighbours really love to walk their dogs, pick up the poop, put it in bags, and then throw it in my driveway? WTF?

So today I cleaned up all the garbage and dog poop and raked and weeded the yard, and emptied out my plant pots and sorted through everything. It took four hours and three lawn bags. Yikes!

We have a sort of mud room/covered fire escape between the house and the back yard and my landlord has been renovating so has been dumping all kinds of crap back there. I swept it out (seriously disgusting - cigarette butts? eww) and then put in a little table for gardening stuff and a boot tray for rubber boots & put down some mats for my garbage/recycling to sit on. It isn't cute, but it definitely feels like functional, useful space rather than a huge pile of crap everywhere.

And I sorted through one of my bookshelves and figured out what to keep/sell/give away. I listed a few books on am*zon also.

I feel like this is more detail than any of you really need but I'm living alone right now so I want someone to be pumped for me!
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"My power doesn't come from other people's lust for my awesome vagina, thanks." - Enzyme

So, I have a blog now.

[tinyrock]

I scanned and/or recycled a bunch of papers this week. After throwing stuff away, I scanned probably a six inch stack, and have about that much still in hard copy to keep.

I also went through my printed out patterns and tossed the ones I can get for free on the internet, after favoriting them on rav. Bonus: I found some old patterns I want to make again.

[killr]

For those of you with boxes of donations waiting to be taken to thrift stores... Did you know you can get them picked up?! Some organizations like AmVets, National Childrens Center and Lupus Foundation will come to your house and pick up donations from your front porch! I love it and the best part is they will call from time to time and its a great motivation to purge some more.

For me, I going to try a Fl*y Lad*y style journal with concrete lists, routine, and goals (and rewards!). I tend to get alot of stress and guilt from housework so I have decided if I complete that day's to do list by the end of the day, and still get in bed by bedtime I do not have permission to feel guilty or worry. I can get overwhelmed by all that needs to be done, and I end up doing NOT ONE THING. I think if I have a concrete list of 15 items, I will actually get all 15 done.

[Chiquita]

[bookselves]

Thanks Chiquita! Internet validation feels good!

Killr, you just reminded me that I need to call the local association (Diabetes) that does pickups around here.
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"My power doesn't come from other people's lust for my awesome vagina, thanks." - Enzyme

So, I have a blog now.

[PurpleDoor]

I cleaned out my freezer! I am not going to admit how long it had gone uncleaned. After scrubbing the gunk that had accumulated, consolidating some items, and trashing a few others, it looks so neat and clean and organized! I did the fridge too, but that's not quite such a big deal as the boyfriend seems to clean it out every few months. Which totally drives me batty as it means a lot of "what IS this? does it REALLY need to be refrigerated?" I grew up in a super warm/humid climate so am used to refrigerating a lot of items, while he grew up in a fairly cool climate where you can leave things like butter out at room temperature for the week with no problems, so we obviously have totally different ideas of what "needs" to be in the fridge...

[tinyrock]

I bought some Barkeeper's Friend, which is a scouring powder I keep seeing mentioned online, and did my cooktop and a few metal pots. It was totally gross to see how much greasy gunk came off (especially when I am privately grumpy about people not washing dishes well enough when they stay over), but that means it works really well, I guess. The cooktop will probably need another round to look as nice as I'd like, though, it got a bit yuck because other things I tried to clean it didn't work / scratched it.

[checkersumthing]

[daysleeper]

I did a little more housekeeping than usual this weekend. I got rid of all the random clothes, towels, socks and rags that have been on top of my dryer for months. I did a lot of laundry and organized the baskets of random that fill my bedroom floor. I had two laundry baskets of clean rags. (??) a laundry basket of xmas decorations I haven't put back into storage, and another basket of gift bags I've collected over the years. Then there were 3 additional baskets of random clean, semi-clean and dirty clothes. I never put my clothes away, just fold them neatly in a basket.

Last weekend I inventoried and cleaned out the pantry and freezer. Then I made a considerable carb donation to my ex. I gave him all but 1 box of pasta and a pound of rice. I also need to detail clean all the big and small appliances in my kitchen.


The place is still quite filthy.
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Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." -Bob Marley

Blog!

[bookselves]

I found a roommate for the summer! Which is awesome but he is moving in this weekend. Eeek!

In the last few days I:
-called about a clothing donation pickup
-got in touch with the landlords about mouse-proofing the house
-cleaned the first third of my kitchen cabinets & re-organized those
-got rid of so much garbage/empty beer bottles/etc. from the basement and storage space
-emptied out what will be my roommate's closet. Phew!
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"My power doesn't come from other people's lust for my awesome vagina, thanks." - Enzyme

So, I have a blog now.

[teak]

YAY! Here is the list I made in the last thread:

#1 of ALL - CLEAN ALL FLOORS -DONE!
-Get someone to take my worm bin -DONE!
-Plants: get rid of mealy infected dirt DONE! and clean pots
-Clean refrigerator
-Recaulk shower and counter!!! Or make my landlady?
-Deal with my sewing scraps, etc -DONE!
-Purge, purge, purge -DONE and continuous!

If I got all that done, there is plenty more to do!
-Put up pictures
-Clean trashcan
-Wash or replace some small rugs -DONE!
-Wash and mend duvet and duster
-Really deep clean the kitty bathroom
-Changeover wardrobe (maybe presumptuous just yet)
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Yeah... well... you know, that's just like... uh... your opinion, man.

mynailspirations.tumblr.com

[Sewfie]

We did a simple spring cleaning when the Hunger games came out, but I think we need to do some more.
What we've done:
- Got a small shelf and rolling cart for our kitchen (moved the microwave and toaster oven to the shelf, now we have counter space again!)
-Put up our winter clothes (that we didn't really need this year anyway); got rid of a few things I didn't wear even when I could have
-Pulled down summer clothes and shoes; got rid of a pair that I've been meaning to fix for almost 3(!!) years and a pair that I've never liked

What we need to do:
-Scrub the floors really good (old hardwood, lots of nooks and crannies to get in)
-Clean all the grout on the bathroom floors
-Replace the old cat litter pans for new ones (with tops); we've replaced 3 so far (we've got 4 cats)
-Give the kitties baths and comb out the shedding fur!
-Reorganize the tupperware and other kitchen junk.
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Eh, f*ck it
My new blog:http://brainsveinsandgrains.blogspot.com/

I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy. -Marie Curie

[ruggedchick]

My house is a complete wreck. If the crew for "Hoarders" accidentally came here they probably wouldn't realize they were in the wrong place.

But I have made some progress this past week. I deep cleaned my son's room....cleaned his carpet, washed his windows, dusted the crap out of the room. I scrubbed down my master bathroom and re-organized it. I de-cluttered the living room and bought a few new lamps for the room. And my biggest accomplishment...I cleaned out and organized the linen closet, which was previously known as The Closet Of Doom And Unknown.
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beefy and confused.

[Chiquita]

Well I got 1/2 of two projects tackled.

I cleaned out one side of the large armoire. The linens side so I put a bunch of things in the donation pile, refolded everything and put in appropriate piles and went out and bought new sheets in celebration. That means I no longer have to do the laundry every time I want clean sheets, we have more than one decent pair!

Cleaned out the piles on one side of my office and cleared off the work table. Yeah, that just leaves one corner of my desk. Ended up with one extra storage box so that is holding some kid craft supplies until I can find them a good home.

I did clear out one foot locker of old craft supplies and make a nice home for games! Easy to get into and cleared out the pile of games that had been lounging under the coffee table for ages.

I bought myself a new vacuum about a month or so ago, that makes the vacuuming task easier.

This weekend I'm making a trip to the donation store. Old vacuums are headed that way along with linens. I may even take 10 minutes to clear out some clothes I never wear and pull forward some of the summer things that have gotten buried.

I know it isn't spring but I've been working so much I barely have time to keep on top of regular house chores so this much felt great.