Time to Spring into Cleaning
The Belle Writers Studio in the early morning mist
I started making my list for spring cleaning yesterday.
After all, when it feels like summer outside, I feel like I’m running behind.
Dale actually began the spring cleaning two weeks ago. I was working one weekend day, so I took the dogs over to The Belle Writer’s Studio so he could pull out the stove and fridge and vacuum the top of the cabinets.
He also came home from work the other day and cleaned the ceiling fans, as it was hot and we needed them.
My list is still pretty long:
- Get my bookkeeping in order and get over to see the accountant to do our taxes
- Clean out the file cabinets and organize important medical records for us and the dogs
- Remove old, expired medications from the medicine cabinet and make a list of what we need for the emergency kit for such things as Benadryl (for snake bites on the dogs), aspirin and bandages (we’ve went through plenty of those this winter), antibiotic spray, bug bite and poison ivy medications.
- Clean out the cabinets of expired foods (shouldn’t have much of that) and clean the pantry to make room for canning goods later in the season.
- Rotate clothes and clean the bedroom closet and getting clothes we did not wear this winter to charity.
- Cleaning the upper storage building, marking boxes for giveaway and sale.
- Organizing the basement in The Belle Writer’s Studio and stocking it with water, towels, weather radio and blankets in case of tornado warnings.
- Getting the outdoor pots ready for a new season of veggies.
Looks like we have a whole season of cleaning and organizing to do!
Have you made your spring cleaning list yet? What’s first on the docket?
You’re making me feel like such a slacker!
Don’t feel bad, a week or so later and I’m still not accomplishing very much on it.
Would you please swing by my place and come up with a spring cleaning list like this? I’m sure you’ll find plenty to work with.
Ha. I could make up the list but you would have to actually do the work! 🙂
I nominated you for a Versatile Blogger award! Swing by my page to pick it up 🙂
Thank you very much, very nice of you!
Ah Yesss Kerri, I would decide to check in this morning to see what you all have been up to. Thanks for the IRS and Spring Cleaning Reminder…not! LOL. 🙂 I have started my list and on top is the getting the taxes done! Next W/E? Maybe. Top of my list for the cabin here is getting windows washed inside and out and the deck pressure washed! Whoo Hoo I get to play in the water. Got the yard whipped into shape or at least a start last week. Now I can view the lake with out having to Peer out between the forest of Weeds I had Growing…Can you answer me this? Why oh Why does not my garden grow like the volunteer weeds? hmmmmm. Cindyt Here in Texas!
That is a question for the ages, Cindy, like why does the chicken cross the road!? 🙂 Glad to see you pop in!
My spring cleaning project is my garage. It is too small to put any of our cars into (old house, small garage) and has become a catch all. With plans to retire and move into our small cabin within 3 years, I have a lot of sorting and purging to do. Two years of medical stuff, I had my thumb joint rebuilt last summer, I haven’t had the mobility to do much so the clutter just piles up. I’m hoping to do a little each day, so I don’t get overwhelmed. Right now it’s open up the door, sigh, and close the door.
Oh, I’m glad you’re past your medical stuff and I have so been there with being overwhelmed. It helps me if I take one area at a time – a corner, a table, etc. and move out from there.
That’s a good list. My door’s open whenever you want to start on my house because I never get around to things like that. Except, of course, taxes, which have to be done.
My parents always said there are two absolutes in life: Death and taxes. 🙁
I’m not a happier cleaner — but I’d rather do just about anything more than our taxes. Every year, we put it off and dread it. My calendar is marked for next week. Ugh.
I know. I should have gotten to this 2 months ago and it would be a memory now.
I’ve been ignoring it, but there are many, many things that have to be done around here, especially my windows, now that the warm weather reminds me that they exist.
Windows really doesn’t bother me much. I think laundry is my worst chore. 🙂
Grrrrrr – what spring? We had another snowstorm yesterday. It’s still The Great White North where I live. However, my friend and I were up at the beach earlier this week and there is virtually no ice in the Gulf (of St. Lawrence) so the lobster fishers should be able to set sail May 1, the official start of lobster season on the North Shore.
I pretty well clean year round so I don’t usually need to do a major clean in the spring – and, obviously, there is no need to bring out the summer clothing yet. **sigh**.
Ah well – it WILL come . . . . .
Ah, Olivia, I do not like winter, so you have my deepest sympathy. It has actually been HOT here the past couple of days. We slept with the windows open last night, crazy for mid March.
We have open shelving in the kitchen and I took everything off and cleaned those a couple of weeks ago. The thing I hate worse to do is clean the windows and I need to get on that! I let it slide last year with the drought and dust bowl but it needs it now. A couple of years ago I bought one of those Windex kits that you could hook to hose and spray on. Of course, it did not work like it said. That would have been too easy!
Love your writer’s studio. What a great place to be inspired!
Thanks, Sue, best place I ever worked! Glad you said that about the Windex hose kit. We have a window on the back (high side) of the studio. Guess Dale will just have to get that ladder out!
There is something so satisfying about the act of making a to-do/to-clean list – such promise and hope! I’m impressed by your plans; apart from the usual cat hair wrangling, we’re planning to rearrange some furniture inside. The real work needs to be done in the garden.
“Cat hair wrangling,” too funny! We call our hair balls “Tumble Dogs.” 🙂 We’ll see how far we actually get on our list. The easy part is making it. 😉
I haven’t made a list just yet, but that could be something I might try different this year.. since becomning a minimulist I have been purging for sometime now and as I go I clean as well.. but painting this old house would be consider a blessing and a spring cleaning project for me. I love uncluttered and simple.. so cleaning and purging is a must…We are doing a challenge for the next two weeks.. we must eat only out of our pantry and freezer and not spend a dime on food.. so far we are not starving one little bit… lol
That is definitely a good way to eliminate the food from the pantry and freezer, Becky. We’ve done that as well. We’re about due for another round.
I am frustrated by all that I need to do both inside and out, with a shoulder healing from rotator cuff surgery. Though I now have limited use of my right arm, it’s painful to do much with it, so I’m doing my best to keep up using just my left arm (and I’m right handed!) Last year at this time I already had my garden beds ready to plant, but they will have to wait until the weekend when my husband can help me with them.
The interior of the house needs thorough cleaning but I am only able to take a few chores each day and complete them, before pain gets the better of me. I have kept up pretty well with dusting and vacuuming, as both can be done easily with one hand, but there is much on my to-do list that will have to wait until my arm is better.
It’s annoying to see all the things in our house that need attention, but I realize this is just one of those times when I will have to be patient and content to do what I can, and not get too frustrated with all that I cannot. This is the first time in my life that I have been so restricted by an injury and though it hasn’t been fun, I feel like I’ve learned from the experience. It has made me realize how difficult it must be for people who deal with disabilities and handicaps every day, but persevere and don’t let it affect their productivity and outlook on life.
In the beginning, just putting on a sock with one hand nearly drove me to tears, but I developed a technique of hooking the sock to my big toe, then pulling it the rest of the way over my foot with my left hand. It’s awkward, but makes one less thing I have to ask for help with. That is another thing that has been humbling about this healing process. I constantly have to ask my husband for help with simple tasks. He is always perfectly happy and good natured about obliging, but it bothers me to have to constantly depend on someone else for things I’ve done all my life, by myself. Maybe it’s not such a bad thing to be reminded that good health as well as physical strength and energy, should be appreciated for the gifts that they are. 🙂
I think it would be very annoying to have a surgery like that with long term healing and PT, Kathleen. You have my sympathies. I had major stomach surgery several years ago and while the healing wasn’t nearly as long, some of the things I had to ask for help with temporarily was downright humiliating. But you have a great outlook on it, to appreciate our good health.
I don’t make a list. I pretty much just go home from work each night and look around and see what I need to do. living on farmland leads to a LOT of dust at my house so I do regular dusting twice a week anyway. Last night I went home and emptied the curio cabinet, cleaned the glass and dusted everything. Tonight I need to go home and sweep and wash the floors in the front hall and wash room. Unfortunately where I currently live is far too large and everytime I downsize my boyfriend brings in more stuff. However i am not one to be easily deterred so I just keep purging and fighting it.
I can empathize with the dust, Heather! We typically have much more of it because of the wood burning stove, but it was so warm this winter, we didn’t use it hardly at all.
We usually don’t have the money to throw parties throughout the year, but we always have one for St. Patrick’s Day and it jump-starts our spring cleaning. This year, we got started even earlier with a kitchen project, so windows have been cleaned, paint was touched-up, and clutter has been…well…organized again.
This might even be the year we purge the crap in the den! I’m excited!
Oh, a St. Patrick’s Day party sounds like great fun, Mat! My dream is to one day celebrate it in Ireland!
Great list. I’m doing this today as well. Also, your readers should check out the NYT article about toxic chemicals in household: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/garden/going-to-extreme-lengths-to-purge-household-toxins.html?_r=1&hpw
Thanks Alexandra. Great link.
Oh gosh, what *isn’t on the list would be a better question for me. We have a cleaning person who comes in sporadically to whip this place into shape, and she’s coming next week. Good incentive for me to declutter, wash windows, etc etc.
A cleaning lady. My dream! 🙂