I've Been Cleaning

With the holidays, just about passed (including a National Day of Mourning for our 38th President - but more about that in the next post), I realized the contents of our small home had reached critical mass. And since the weather continues to act like Spring, I started on a spring cleaning tear around the house.

I liberally applied the cleaning "rule" - "If you haven't touched it in six months or more, you don't need it anymore." I also "weeded" the home collection of items that were only gathering dust and not necessarily adding value or utility to the home.

Our half bath was the first and easiest target. I disposed of a "decorative" bar of soap that was steadily becoming more dust than soap. I removed a "nightlight" that was a gift (and I apologize in advance to the people who gave it to me) depicting a lighthouse scene. The main problem with the picture? Two words, one man - Thomas Kinkade. It went well with the lighthouse theme throughout the bath, but I opted for the "Less is More" approach - another rule applied frequently during this cleaning spurt.

In the hall, I went through the bookcase and removed some cookbooks and placed them on half.com. I even went through our recipe box and deaccessioned several individual recipes. I know, I know, it's minutiae, but it made me feel better. By the way, there are items that are exempted from the six-month rule, books being one of them. I cleaned out the hall closet, getting items ready for a charity clothing pickup early next month. I use Vietnam Veterans of America, but there are lots of organizations out there that need donations.

I also attacked the living room, trying to contain the multitudinous items maintained by a two year old. As you can see by the picture, there is still a large tree in the living room and had to work around that, but still managed to get things neat(er) and tidy(ier). I also deferred two tasks to a later date - photo organization and personal phone book consolidation (we own four of them).

I then moved onto the kitchen. Here of course, there was the weeding of kitchen items and some food stuffs. Gone now are the extraneous travel coffee mugs waiting for a chance to be used again, the kiddie cups that leak, or suffer from poor design. Also departed is the cheese dip mix, the trial size packets of some spread, the opened jar (and most likely stale) bottle of cayenne pepper bought at the dollar store. There was much reorganizing to be done here, allowing for better use of the limited space available in the kitchen. Not yet complete is a good cleaning of the refrigerator, which is sorely needed (not that there is any health dangers in there, it just would benefit from a good wipe down) or the "exterior" surfaces. Floors, cabinets, windows, etc. - you have been notified, expect a good cleaning in the next week.