SPRING CLEAN

After a near breakdown, Dominic and I determined that our little apartment had reached disasterous! It needed some help ... there were clothes everywhere, dishes piled sky-high, and textbooks strewn about. Our lives were in utter chaos. It was confirmed that immediate action needed to take place after seeing Oprah's segment entitled "Clutter Makes Your Butt Look Bigger" ... AHHHHHH! Time to clean!!! So, yesterday after church we began the process. We vaccuumed, did two loads of dishes, rearranged the appliances that live on top of the counters, did massive loads of laundry (that are still in progress), Dominic cleaned out his closet (which includes a huge basket of things to take to Goodwill), we organized the bathroom, and de-cluttered the best we could.

SIDENOTE: Our lease is up in July and we hope to move to a nicer apartment then. So we figured that by cleaning up we are helping ourselves in the long run by moving less. It was determined that we have alot of college rollover. Crappy furniture, old clothes that we no longer wear because we are in the professional world, and plain ol' junk.

Then we got down to the nitty gritty. I swept and vaccuumed (with the little sucker nozzle thing) behind the fridge and as far behind the oven as I could get. All of this led to having to figure out how to dump the receptacle on the vaccuum that the dirt goes to ... it said it was a "no mess, easy disposal cup, no bag needed). They lied. It took Dominic and I a good 5 minutes to get it out. All the little junk piles that add up got sorted like old school papers and mail that we thought we would have the time to sit down and read. We flipped our mattress. Then I left for work ... and Dominic promised to continue our cleaning efforts. When I got home he was sitting in his chair watching a movie and matching all the socks in his sock drawer! He really got in to the cleaning spirit (AND THIS IS A HUGE BLESSING).

This week we are still having the following on our to-do list (Dad is here for the week training for his new job so he plans to help as well ... YEAH!): take trips to Goodwill, clean Gretchen's closet out, organize the office area ... perhaps move desks around and get rid of one, organize the craft area, exchange our stupid file cabinet from Target that constantly falls apart and re-file everything, keep up on the laundry/dishes, iron the massive pile of ironing, deep clean the bathroom. We'll see how it goes. It is amazing how much STUFF we've accumulated. Alot of it is valid, just no longer needed. Between trips to Goodwill and books for sale on Amazon, plus trips to the garbage I see a cleaner, clutter-free future ahead of us!

HAPPY SPRING CLEANING EVERYONE! (Yesterday, as a reward for making everything cleaner I put in new Wallflowers from Bath & Body Works ... blackberry vanilla, now our home smell AND looks LOVELY!)