Day Two

The second day of spring torture cleaning is over! Last Saturday I began the daunting task of ridding my house of toys, dust, grime, clothing, junk, crap, and junk. Yesterday I spent some more time scrubbing.

My house was messy. Oh boy, it was messy. It looked a bit like my house had pushed all of the books and toys off of the shelves, pulled the clothes off of the hangars and out of the drawers, squirted ketchup and mustard all over everything, then stirred it around with a big stick. And then my house threw it all up. It was horrendous.

In my defense, I have two young children, and one much older male child. Both my husband and I missed that day in Kindergarten when the concept of clean up was taught. We both have the inability to pick up after ourselves, we're lazy housekeepers and we didn't own a mop for the first two years of our marriage. I am getting MUCH better about it, but my house is never company ready.

Every year in March and April I spend several weekends scouring the floor and walls, getting rid of stuff, and deep cleaning closets. Last year I had a three month old baby who NEVER SLEPT and so my spring cleaning agenda got shoved under the bed with the rest of the dust bunnies and old socks.

But this year I knew I really needed to spend some bonding time with some dust rags and a bottle of 409. So I wrote out my list of tasks and got ready to work. Last Satuday was spent mostly cleaning up the general chaos. It's hard to deep clean when you have dishes and toys and laundry and junk everywhere. So after spending several hours of straightening up I began on Chloe's room. I threw out several bags of broken toys, donated several bags of unused toys, and put a few boxes of toys in storage. Scrubbed down windows and doors and walls and shelves, got rid of unread books and unloved stuffed animals.

Yesterday I began the kitchen. I scrubbed down small appliances, cleaned out the fridge and sorted through cupboards. As I was getting down and dirty clean I was struck by the sheer filthiness of my walls!

The wall behind Alivia's high chair might just win some awards for being the Dirtiest Wall Ever. You see, she's a Flinger. When she is done with food she doesn't politely put down her fork and daintility wipe her mouth with a napkin. Oh no, she chucks everything on her high chair tray as far as she can. I think it is a game to her "Five points if I can hit the wall with this noodle!" "Ten points if this peach sticks to the fridge door!" "Twenty points if I can hit my sister with this sippy cup!" I usually clean up major spills right away, but the wall needed a good wipe down. I spent a good hour scrubbing off bits of stuck on food and dried juice.

Next Saturday I will continue to freshen up my grimy cave!