The Great Cleanup of 2010

So, yeah. I'm sure I've said before how little time I devote to cleaning up the house. I mean I generally try to keep it "picked up," sure, but it's not very motivating to clean a house that is 1. half destructed, 2. stained, or otherwise ruined so that cleaning does not improve the looks of anything, and 3. going to be completely demolished bit by bit. (Plus, let's be honest, there are a hundred other things I'd rather be doing.) So I do the dishes. But I don't mop the floor unless it's really bad.

However, this summer I am expecting all of my nearest and dearest to celebrate Troy's big birthday. For many this will be the first time they see the house. It's not much to look at (yet), but I thought I should try to at least put my best foot forward, and all that. (Plus looking at dirt and grime does get me down even though I'm  generally pretty successful at ignoring it.)

So, enter the Great Seven Week Plan to clean up the house. I'm trying a zone plan: one room per week. We'll see how it goes.

Week One: Upstairs bathroom. Full of junk and loaded with grime in all the places the vacuum can't easily reach. Windows need to be done, all the stuff needs to be sorted, stashed and/or given away.

I didn't get to a great start for the week, but made an awesome fourth-quarter come back today. I got everything on the list done except one window where I had to take care of a wasp nest. Happily I noticed the wasp before it got too threatened (or threatening).

View 1: before

after

Shelf above the toilet is completely sorted and organized. Same with the black wire shelf. Got rid of a lot of hair things I no longer use. Cleaned shelves, garbage can, mirror.

View 2: before

after

Reorganized things in white cupboard. All the sheets fit in there now (and the door stays shut). Went through all boxes and got rid of about 4 boxes worth of stuff!! A lot of that was plant pots that I am never going to use. Got the table out (it's upside down, holding up the shelf in the "before" pic)...I'll need it for the party, even if there's no good place to store it right now.

Part of this job somehow also included repotting most of Troy's cactus (which are in the bedrooms, not the bathroom...so much for zone). But Troy said they really needed it and then I knew what pots I needed before I gave them all away. So ok, I'll let myself get away with that one. I put out a notice that these baby cactus were free for the taking and got some takers. If you're local and you'd like one, just ask if there's any left.

View 3: before

after

Hmm...not a lot of change here. One window washed, but like I said I couldn't do the second one tonight. The closet is slightly better organized, the best part being that the floor is completely clear.

Week One is feeling like a pretty good success, although I have to admit that there are some larger items that I took out of the bathroom and haven't yet found space for like the solar oven, the car headrests and the aforementioned table. (Yes, it may seem obvious that none of those things really seem to belong in a bathroom in the first place, but that's how life is around here.)

Good night! I have worked enough today to deserve an early rest (and to need it)!


PS: I have been very silent about the siding because it is still not done. Last time I wrote I mentioned we were going to try finish it the next day, but we just couldn't get it done. Nothing went wrong, but obviously we didn't have a good sense of how much was left to do (or how much time it would take). We'd stayed out until 9 that night before finally giving into the realization that it just wasn't going to happen. We've tried several times since then and keep running into severe weather. For some reason Troy's not keen on climbing the aluminum ladder during a storm...

It's so frustrating to be so close and not be able to get it done. But we will.

We will.