Clean/Declutter (maintain the gumption)

We’re heading out of town later, and I realized how incredibly nice it would be to come home to a clean house, so I spent the entire day plowing my way through a long cleaning list (my little helper was extra helpful too, dusting, picking up his toys, bringing me dishes to wash, sorting laundry, baby-wiping things). It looks great! Now I’m waiting for my turn in the tub. Hopefully I won’t be too exhausted to figure out the new tent or forget TP (mental note)...

I took advantage of the crap weather and hit the cleaning mode fast forward button again. I offered to put on a movie for Isak, but he genuinely wanted to help.

Nailed (post laundry/dishes): Hall rack (including weeding out too small footwear for donation), bathroom shelves, cabinet, sink & toilet, mirrors/screens, music collection, toy basket, liquor & tea cabs, and unsightly stack of random mail, coupons & catalogs.

I’m going to have a well earned cup of honeybush now.

With all of the other things that have been gnawing at my time lately, the house lost its priority notch. Rather unfortunate, that – since household mess/clutter definitely nudges my stress level up higher.

Today I looked around and realized I needed to throw myself into a serious cleaning frenzy, so after chugging a pot of coffee and snapping on the blue rubber gloves, I set to it. All day.

Dishes were washed & put away, laundry finished, clothes piles sorted, beds made, pillows fluffed, toy mountains bulldozed, book stacks put in cases, clutter away, floors swept & vacuumed, objects dusted, movies replaced, garbage & recyclables out the door, counters washed, cupboards wiped, boxes moved to storage, papers filed, fridge culled, dustbunnies slaughtered… it was a very, very full day of housework.

No walks, no futzing about, just housecleaning insanity. And it wasn’t that bad. I feel like I really accomplished something. Isak manned the duster, the broom, and baby wiped little stains away like it was a fun game.

I think I need to give myself a daily push on this again. There’s still a lot to tackle, but I made a me-sized dent and then some.

a stack of books donated to the library, a favorite wicker piece long ago chewed by my dog went to a better place along with an old cabinet, silk ficus trees that have been living in the back yard. The BBQ, used once and too many memories, has found a good home and will be moving soon. More to go. Finally started selling on eBay, need to de-clutter my camera, etc so it doesn’t take so long to load new pictures, there must be a better way to do this. Tossed a handful of old lipsticks, etc. (recycling?) The off-white mini-blinds from the kitchen window may not make it back up there, once the kitchen is finished and painted shiny, creamy white and clean.

Another catch-up cleaning fest today, mostly focusing on dishes (stacks!), laundry (piles!), floors, garbage/recycling, appliance wipe-down, dusting, paper sorting and general tidying up. I put in a good 3 hours at least.

At one point I heard the bathroom sink running and found Isak with one bright orange rubber glove on, dipping it in the water and rubbing it around on things. He smiled proudly and chirped “ISAK HELPING!” – it’s always good to have help, even if it was more comic relief than practical. He can still man a mean duster when he feels like it.

Aside from the same old grind, I’ve had some excellent violent cleaning sprees, the most productive being yesterday before Isak’s birthday party, when Markus and I cleaned the whole place, full throttle, for 4 hours straight.

I may still need to wash chocolate cake off the ceiling and tidy up the new toy bomb, but the whole place looks tamer now. I think this will give me strength to press on and deal with some deeper layers of mess and clutter.

I continue to fight the neverending flow of mess that piles up here. The stream of company has helped kick those cleaning frenzies into gear, but frankly I’m feeling exhausted by the constant battle with dishes and laundry and garbage and vacuum pushing and such. I need to rediscover the zen of house cleaning. I need the joy and gumption, not just the feeling of being overwhelmed by fabric softener and rabid dustbunnies.

I put in another good cleaning stint today.

Kitchen: Dishes/counter/stove, decluttered fridge, recycling/garbage.
Bathroom: thorough toilet/sink/tub, cleaned mirror, shelves (and bathmat).
Bedroom: Picked up clothes, made bed, vacuumed, cleaned mirror, washed bedding.
Living room: Put away toys, vacuumed, put away books & CDs.
Isak’s room / office: Put away clothes/toys, cleaned desktop, vacuumed.
Hall / Laundry room: laundry X 2, vacuumed corners, moved boxes.

A few more days of this should make up for slacking off a bit on the cleaning front.

Just for fun (ha! – right), I went in threes today. It seems logical – do three things to clean or declutter in every room. This way if I’m feeling full of cleaning chutzpah I can kick house ass with big and important things, and if my energy is low the priorities are clearer and still get done.

Today was a mix of both.

Kitchen: Dishes, counter, stove.
Bathroom: Put away dry clothes, toilet swish, sink swipe.
Bedroom: Picked up clothes, made bed, dusted.
Living room: Put away toys, refreshed flowers (the pink & yellow daisies are still perky), dusted.
Isak’s room / office: Put away clothes, tidied books, recycled logged food packages.
Hall / Laundry room: Tidied hall rack, chased down cat fur, put away 3 loads of laundry.

Whew!

I’ve continued to plug away at housecleaning, though I wish I had my previous motivation to go above and beyond daily. I only have so much spare time and lately I’ve been using it for other things – exercise, getting out for walks, general cleaning.

Necessity being the mother of invention (or at least the Aunt of motivation), the issue with the water heater meant we had to clean out that area so the plumber can get in there this afternoon.

It’s a nasty area, packed full of junk on one side (some from when we moved in) and the “Kitty potty” on the other. Since I usually just fly in for a scoop & fill, the area behind that was not pretty. I got up early knowing this was waiting for me.

After moving the rest of our stuff, I cleaned the box, put it outside, then swept the whole space with a broom that’s headed for the garbage, & re-cleaned the floor.

Then I went gangbusters on the rest of the house for a couple of hours. If I had hot water, I’d do more, but that will have to wait.

Funny, now I’m picturing Frank Zappa in a French maid’s uniform.