thoroughly clean the house and then keep it clean

This window faces west. It is excruciating in the summer, so I have always left the blinds closed, but that makes the room dark. Plus, with the blinds closed all the time, spiders find their way between there.

OK, nevermind that I’ve lived here for 13 years and never decided to do anything about my favorite room always being dark in the daytime. I finally did something about it today. The fabric is actually quite sheer, although it looks more solid in the night time photo.

The little clear shelves are just 97¢ stackable baskets from WalMart, but since they are clear, they don’t weigh down the corner aesthetically while still accenting the depth of the window sill.

All this time, I have been letting things pass around here, but finally! I am making my own mark on this house and I like it. It’s so wecoming and cozy now. :)

This has endlessly been a problem area in the house. That table is actually my daughter’s “hope chest” and books get stacked on it all the time. Well, not anymore!

I got a bunch of bitty little stacking baskets that are clear and put the small books in a couple of those. The rest are put away out of the room. I even got a set of plastic drawers for all the tutoring supplies, so now the coffee table cabinet isn’t full of folders and school supplies, and the end of the couch there has no more timed-reading stories on it. YAY!

. . . is possible again!

Yesterday I decided I’d had enough of eating on the couch now that the pool table takes up the entire Dining Room. The real dinner table is in my studio and there’s no room for it anywhere else now anyway.

So I figured out a good plan! I cleared out my Dearest’s clutter from the Family Room and set up a card table with two chairs. Then I went over to the local Goodwill and got a few tablecloths, a pair of placemats and some awesome table runners. THEN I informed him that nothing is to be set on that table except food…and maybe some flowers.

Hope it works. Wish me luck!

Well, really the whole kitchen, since this is such a good shot of the entire room.

It is done. I am amazed. It took me a while to be this thorough, but it is so worth it!

Now… On to the Dining Room!. . . Well, we have a pool table instead of a dinner table so technically, we do not DINE in there anymore, but “game room” isn’t an appropriate title, since the air hockey table and the foosball table are not in there. Regardless of what function the room holds, it IS still the dining room and I DO still have to clean it next.

Not just any sweep and mop job. We were besieged by ants a week or so ago and I killed them all with a generous sprinkling of talcum powder. Wow! $1.87 at WalMart for at least a year’s worth of non-toxic ant killer. It even smells good!

But I digress. If you sweep up the powder the same day, the ants that aren’t dead come in after their buddies. Having a little powder on the floor for a few days is not that big of a deal, but it doesn’t help the appearance of the kitchen in the least.

So I swept it all up and mopped the floor and washed the little pink rugs and the ants did NOT come marching home again. Hurrah! Hurrah!

All the stuff is put away and I absolutely LOVE having handy outlets for all my small appliances! The depth of the counter is perfect for everything to fit under the upper cabinets and still have room to work.

The cleanup of this part of the kitchen has been minimal so far, but as we get used to having another whole counter in there, I will have to be extra diligent in cleaning up after ‘certain people’.

This is the part of the kitchen that seems to collect things. The dishwasher and sink are right there, so dirty dishes get put right there, too.

Unfortunately, the the north side of the kitchen is open to the Dining Room and Family Room, so when the sink area gets piled up, the whole front of the house seems messy.

On the right-hand side of the sink, there was a particularly bothersome stock pot full of little hand-wash crap, most of which I threw away because I don’t want to have to wash it all by hand every time I use it. The rest of the stuff in that pot (pretty bottles, Miracle Blade knives, wooden spoons, a tumbler made out of that plastic that the dishwasher cracks, and a few ceramic salt & pepper shakers) all got washed (finally) and put away properly.

On the left-hand side of the sink, there were several cleaning products that belonged underneath the sink and are now down where they belong. I also emptied the under-sink cabinet completely and cleared out a bunch of junk, so now I can find everything easily.

The Baker’s Rack in the foreground of the photo also got a thorough once-over. I found a few items I was glad to see again, and trashed a bit of useless stuff, as well as something that had shriveled up long ago.

All in all, it was a great accomplishment.

The aforementioned cabinets were only part of it. I got rid of a bunch of stuff and took down some of the cutesy farm animal decorations. There’s still a couple of chickens and a cow picture that says, “Got Cookies?” on the wall, but I think it looks a lot better without the knick-knacks across the back of the stove. The stove is 22 years old, so it’s not going to look any better than that. I like that the cabinets are all shiny clean now. :)

... were kinda gross. I wanted to go through the cabinets in the old part of the kitchen, just to get rid of a bunch of mugs and cups and stuff that I don’t ever use, but then I found the film.

I was working quite near the ceiling, where I do not usually go, and there it was, on the tops and around the hinges of the little cabinet doors. The FILM. Gross.

It’s gone now. It took miracle cleaner and some elbow grease, but I vanquished the film. I also emptied half the cabinets, so now I have more room to put things I want in the kitchen.

It seems like forever since I have done anything big around here. Well, it HAS been since March, I guess, or I would have had something else to write.

My last entry was the day I started substitute teaching on a long term basis. While I was working everyday, I just kept up with most things around here. Some duties fell by the wayside and slowly piled up.

As soon as my assignment was done on May 9th, all my girls showed up from college(s) and a few days later, we went to Florida for a week. They were here for a day or two afterwards, but now I am getting back to normal and it is feeling pretty good. :)

So… It HAS been ages, but today I found myself very much enjoying the cleaning of the kitchen: sweeping, mopping, putting things away, clearing the counters. It was not overwhelming, just pleasant.

ahhh.