Fall Cleaning

Fall cleaning...it makes total sense.

I first heard of it a few years ago in a mama group I was a part of on Cafe Mom.
These ladies were overachievers though, and would completely redecorate their
homes to accommodate the fall/winter setting. I wish I had the energy and money
to be able to do that but honestly, I just need a good excuse to get the dirty handprints
off my walls.

I spring clean every single inch of my house, but it's been a whole 6+ months since then
and you can't even tell I tried. It's really quite magical how disgusting kids can be.
And how busy you get raising them that certain household things get neglected
(I'm just being honest here).

Here are some things on my fall cleaning list. It may look similar to my spring list because
1) I have the same stuff and 2) I have the same house.

Clean out clothes

Clean out toys

Clean out all cupboards/shelves/drawers
Clean out and restock medicine cabinet
Clean out sink and shower drains

Make a list for maintenance
 Wash curtains
Organize and clean all DVDs
Throw away expired food and wipe down kitchen cupboards
Clean behind and under fridge and stove
 Basically, start at one end of the house and clean EVERYTHING.

It will take a few days. Just prepare yourself for that.
But your house will be ready for holiday guests and you can get
a head start on those winter germs.
Not to mention you will feel so good when its done!

Here's an idea of what I'm up against...

No shame.

Spring Cleaning Pt 3

It has taken me 5 whole days to clean 3.5 rooms.

So I guess that means we will be going into week 2!

I'll take the weekend off.

I had a friend babysit today so I could actually feel

accomplished. I was able to finish all 3 kid's rooms

and start on the kitchen.

I cleaned out a couple of cupboards, including my

spices. Wow. I had no idea I had so many expired

spices. We cleaned out our cupboards last spring but

apparently didn't feel like looking at expiration dates.

Some of them expired in like 2010 lol.

I threw out so many spices. This is what it looked

like when I was done...

I guess I'll be restocking soon!

Spring Cleaning Pt 2

At the rate I'm going, my spring cleaning week is

going to turn into spring cleaning two weeks.

Gah!

It's so much more difficult to deep clean with 3 little

busy bodies running around craving your attention.

My goal today was the kid's rooms. All three of them.

I got 1/3 completely done. The other 2 I probably got 1/4 done.

I don't know what that is in math language,

but I know it doesn't equal 100%     >:(

One insanely fussy baby and one crayon mural over my

entire dining room floor and I decided I was done for the day.

Instead of feeling frustrated about what I didn't do,

I need to pat myself on the back for what I did get done.

It's better than nothing.

So aside from routine cleaning, here's what else I like

to accomplish when spring cleaning the bedrooms...

Kid's Bedrooms

Empty all drawers and clean out clothes that no longer

fit, are old, or beat up.

Reorganize clothes back to where they need to go.

Replace pillows.

Shampoo mattress.

Shampoo carpets.

Clean windows, inside and out, including tracks.

Clean out toys, toss/sell/donate/reorganize.

Replace batteries in toys that need it.

Wipe down walls and baseboards.

Clean ceiling fan.

 A few months ago I got really sick of the mass amount of

toys my kids have collected over the years so I went to 

Home Depot and bought a few organizational bins.

I allowed each kid to have 3 bins and we labeled each one.

Kayden has Polly Pocket, Littlest Pet Shop, and Barbies.

Davin has Trucks & Bikes, Tools, and Legos.

Any toy that didn't fit into these categories was outta there.

It was a huge relief and made cleaning up so much easier.

They still had a couple "big" toys like dolls and car tracks but

those weren't a problem to begin with. It's those tiny Happy Meal

useless pieces of crap toys that they forget about in 5 seconds but

gets lost in the toy box forever. Those are the problems!

Here is Britty's closet after I cleaned it out.

Organizing her clothes took some time.

At that age, they are cycling through clothes so fast!

In her dresser is 12-18mo stuff.
The bins in her closet are 2T summer and 2T winter.

There is also a huge box in there with everything 3T+.

The pink basket is full of shoes.

 

Ps. If you haven't already, please "like" my Facebook page :)

I enjoy keeping in touch on there too!

Spring Cleaning Pt 1

It's that time of the yearrrrrrr!

Spring officially starts this week, that means it's time for

SPRING CLEANING

yay!

Oh man, I have no motivation.

Last year hubby was home to help me.

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to manage this with the

kids around but it needs to get done!

A part of me looks forward to this every year because

it is suuuuch a good feeling when it's all done.

I decided to just start off with the small task

of the master bathroom today. It is Monday, afterall.

I shouldn't over do it on a Monday.

About halfway done with the bathroom I was over it lol

The only thing keeping me going was knowing I had to post

about it at some point! So thank you, dedicated bloggy readers,

for unknowingly motivating me.

Spring cleaning for me isn't just cleaning.

Its perfecting every single inch of my living space.

I keep two lists while I work. One for items I need to restock or replace.

And one with things I need to call maintenance about.

Master Bathroom

Clean out drains.

Take everything out of shelves, cabinets, and drawers, wipe down.

Throw away expired medicine, old soaps, etc.

Wash shower curtains and bath mats.

Clean light fixture, replace light bulbs if needed.

Wipe down walls and baseboards.

Here's my bathroom cupboard's "after" photo.

All of our medications are on the highest shelf.

I added an organizer for our first aid stuff.

The second shelf has all of my hair and beauty products.

The third shelf is my asthma stuff and Britton's eczema stuff.

I keep our prescriptions stocked here since we're both on regular medications.

I also stored some miscellaneous medical supplies we have.

The fourth shelf has our scale, hair clippers, and humidifier.

Project Backyard

Time for another embarrassing moment for Yours Truly!

I left my backyard out of my home tour for the sole

reason that it was highly unattractive at the time.

Well not much has changed.

BUT I said when I started my blog that this would be

my source of motivation to accomplish what I needed to

do around my house.

So without further adieu, take a look at my backyard...

Now in my defense, everyone's grass here looks like this

in the winter! Our front yards all look this way too :(

 However, its beginning to warm up so its starting to green up.

 We have the biggest backyard available here and I'm ashamed

of how ours looks! We don't spend a whole lot of time outside

during the winter but with Spring right around the corner, I need

to get it cleaned up for the kids.

My Goals

Plant a flower garden

Paint the garden bed

Reseed the grass

Stain and seal the play structure

Repair anything loose or broken on play structure

Fix up the trampoline

Wish me luck!

For those of you wondering what happened to my laundry room,

its still a work in progress. I am very close to finishing it so here 

is a sneak peek!

Defeat the Paper Clutter

Who's ready for this one?

If you're a person, you probably have piles

and piles and piles and piles

of random paper clutter all over your house.

You might have a good idea of what is where,

but is that really where it belongs?

Doubt it!

About a year ago I got to researching the
best way to organize and maintain the paper
clutter in my house. It took a good day's worth
of organizing but I felt so relieved after.

It's about that time again.

Find a System!

I keep all of my important paperwork in this
cheap little box I got at Walmart.



One of my favorite tips from my research
last year was to keep file folders for each month,
instead of categorized by company or subject.



At the beginning of each month, I clear out that file
and start adding my new bills/papers to it as it comes.

Find a strategy that works for you, something
you can keep up with or your paper clutter will
come back for you!!!


What to keep? What to toss?

The first step to decluttering is to go through
the entire house and gather every piece of loose paper
you can find. This includes mail stuck in junk drawers,
receipts, flyers, school work, bills, menus, everything.



Keep: Birth certificates, health records, insurance policies,
passports, deeds, titles, warranty receipts, tax records for the
past 7 years, will, citizenship papers, bills for the past year,
bank statements for the past year, investment papers for the past
year, loans, anything else you think you should probably hold on to.

Organize!

Throw away the trash!

Sort your "keep" pile into their own categories depending
on how your file folder is set up.

Jot down numbers off of flyers and toss them.
Clip what you want to keep out of newspapers
or magazines and toss those.

Don't quit until every piece of paper is taken care of.


Rejoice!

You will feel so much better when it's done.
And if you have found a good system, the
next time you do this will be a lot easier!

The HMB

The HMB is one of my favorite tools!

It stands for Home Management Binder.

I created mine about 4 years ago and got the

idea from a group I was a part of on CafeMom,

back when that was cool.

It is my household guide book and is responsible

for keeping me sane on a daily basis.

 I will give you an idea of what I keep in my

personal HMB and hopefully you will be inspired

enough to make one!

I can't tell you how useful it is!

Section 1 - Monthly Planner

Monthly calendar

Weekly menus

Grocery lists

Schedules

Section 2 - Expenses

Budget sheet

Bills schedule

Debt snowball worksheet

Receipts/warranty information

Section 3 - Household

Password list

Trip packing list

Auto maintenance paperwork

Travel plans

Contracts

Section 4 - Cleaning

Daily chores

Weekly chores

Monthly chores

Spring cleaning breakdown 

Section 5 - Emergency

Info for babysitters

Family ID information

(thumbprints, recent pic, etc)

Medical consent forms

 Copies of insurance info

Home inventory w/ pictures

Evacuation plans

Section 6 - Home Projects

To-Do lists

Home wish list

Magazine cut outs, printed ideas

Garden information

That is my HMB in a nutshell. To give you a

head start on your own HMB, I designed some title

pages and added them to my Etsy store!

If you plan on making one you will need to get

a 3-ring binder, page protectors, and dividers.

"Stressed is desserts spelled backwards!"

My Cleaning Schedule

 I'm one of those people who likes lists. I like schedules

and I like having a piece of paper telling me what to do.

A few years ago, after having my second baby, I 

realized I had no idea how to keep my house clean.

I felt like it was always messy. And not just normal

messy, I mean gross. Dishes in the sink, toilets that 

needed to be scrubbed. Forget about cleaning the showers,

who has time for that?

I started working on a schedule to follow.

I wanted something where I could do a little bit each

day without feeling overwhelmed, but making sure

that it all got done.

It took a few tweaks here and there as I figured out

what worked best for me, but I finally came up with

the winning product and I've been pretty good about

following it ever since.

Monday

Clean out the fridge

Throw away old food, wipe down the shelves.

Tuesday

Bathrooms

Completely clean both bathrooms from top to bottom.

Change towels, empty trash.

Wednesday

Laundry

All of it, no excuses. Washed, dried, folded, put away.

Thursday

Floors

Vacuum and mop the entire house.

Friday

Car and Purse

Yes I have to schedule to clean out my purse.
That's how bad I am with it!

On top of these I do daily rounds of making the beds,

casual pick up, and rotating the dishes.

And by the way, some of my favorite cleaning products are...

For more cleaning inspiration check out http://www.flylady.net/

or my cleaning board on Pinterest http://pinterest.com/kellymaeblog/clean-love/