spring cleaning...

Spring cleaning is FINISHED!  It was long, hard, but SO rewarding.  My house has never been cleaner and I just love that feeling--stress-free for the moment!

Here's the run-down:

Ava/Edy's room: 4 hrs

master bath/closet: 2.5 hrs

master bedroom: 3hrs

laundry room:1 hr

Joy's room: 1.5 hrs

kitchen/entryway: 10hrs

hall bath: 1 hr

office: 2 hrs

garage: 3 hrs

grand total: 28 hours

Yes, that's a long time, but I spread it out over a couple of days (remember my kids were in AR) and I touched every square inch of this house...I'm not joking.  It was that kind of cleaning.

Indulge me as I show off some of the hard work...

 

Graham helped me with the garage, but he cleaned out his shop and really got it looking nice.  It's been really junky since we moved in.  I just love that he loves to organize as much as I do.  I was tickled with the finished product! Doesn't it look nice!

Now...before you start judging me by the next photo, let me take a quick second to explain:
Our house has a ton of tile, we live out in the country (lots of dust/dirt), and our house isn't elevated off the ground (everything gets tracked in).  I said all of that to say, the tile throughout the house was bad.  They've probably been this way since we moved in, but I didn't take a great look at it--looks can be deceiving.  About 7 months ago, I really noticed how bad it was, but I was in the midst of morning sickness and whatnot.  *Disclaimer: I mop every week without fail, but the dirt/dust embedded in the tile wouldn't come up with just an average mopping, it had to be scrubbed.  The worst places were the entryway, around corners/doorways, and up against the baseboards--where the dust/dirt settled.
Wanna see the pic? I know you peeked anyway.

 

 [left=dirty, right=clean]

Multiply this by like 1 million and you get the idea.  Oh yeah, picture me with knee pads on, scrub brush in hand, bucket of hot water/pine sol, and clean mop.  I scrubbed every.single.solitary.tile in our home and it nearly killed me, but I can say without hesitation that they've never been cleaner--except maybe for the day they were installed! *I have to say, the photo really magnifies the dirty side. It wasn't as easy to see as you would think or it wouldn't have taken me 2 years to take action.

Had to show my worn out knees after nearly 6 hours of scrubbing.

The final day of spring cleaning was spent doing fun stuff: touch-up paint, decorating, putting out fresh candles, labeling (post to come), and other little touches. 

Our laundry room is the only room in our home that has brown walls.  I always keep a little paint on hand for occasional touch-ups.  Apparently, I kept the wrong color so now I have a dark brown smear on the wall.  It's okay, I am repainting this room soon--hopefully before Joy gets here.

The run-down:
ceiling fans: check; baseboards: check; refrigerator/freezer: check; every cabinet/drawer/nook/cranny: check,check,check; dusting: check; walls, check; carpets: check; tile: check; you name it: check, check, check!

Saturday, I had a completely clean house and we went to pick-up our girls in Texarkana! YAY!  They hadn't been home an hour and I noticed a sticky blob on the kitchen tile.  It reminded me that we live in a fallen world.  I had to laugh/sigh/die inside--Ecclesiastes personified.  It's all vanity...futile.  Until our Lord returns, the tile is going to continue to dirty, the dust is going to acquire, the walls will get scratched.  I'm so glad I can say this world is not my home!