February 10

The Dyson has landed.

Sadly, the evening has been full of children playing marbles and dashing about and being put to bed...

OK, none of that is actually sad.  Actually, that's all wonderful.  

But, I haven't really been able to spend time with my vacuum.

We tested it out on the living room and dining room rug and that baby can turn on a dime, let me tell you.

Tomorrow-- the stairs!

On that note, I have to admit-- no deep cleaning tonight.

I blame the children and marbles and dashing and...

I am tired.  

Friday haiku

winter's back today

barely-snow dusting roads and

putting spring on hold

February 9

Give a girl a thirty day cleaning challenge, and she's bound to... decide she needs a career change? 

Driving home from work today I had this sudden impulse that really, what I ought to be doing with my time is to be a Lactation Consultant.  I felt it, with great certainty. 

Not quite sure where this all came from.  I mean, it wasn't even a bad day at school.  But the more I think about it, the more I think, "Why not?"  Why not be working towards something that I think would be a fulfilling option for my future?

Um, I don't know, Amanda.  Maybe your complete lack of time, money, or energy to take on anything new?


Nah.  That's nothing.


When not researching requirements for Lactation Consultant certification, I cleaned the cupboard that holds our kitchen trash can (which really ought to be done more often, let me tell you) and also Ivy's nursery glider.  The latter was prompted by Ivy peeing on said glider when we briefly left her in her room, "nakey" at her request.  Need to get that girl potty trained.


No haiku today.  I think I am aiming for more of a haiku-every-3-or-4-days-or-so than a haiku-a-day this month. That's just going to have to be OK.

My Dyson might come tomorrow.  Just wait til this weekend.  A great furor of cleaning shall descend upon this house. 

Just in time for us to cover it in glitter on Sunday...

February 8

Holding your breath, weren't you???

Last night, Nat and I teamed up and cleaned out the sideboard-- emptied, dusted and wiped down, and re-filled in an orderly fashion. Definitely a "secret" cleaning job; no one but the two of us will ever know it was done.  But we will know!  And it will be lovely to be able to get out a serving bowl without jimmying and rearranging and cursing about all the *&%# crap in the way...

Tonight, I dusted and cleaned the foyer window seat--- and all the space underneath.  I do believe radiators were invented just to hold dust and dog hair.  Once more, a job that will likely go unnoticed by any passers-by, but I am content in the knowing that there is that much less dirt in our home.

Haiku for midweek days

early morning drive
darkness not yet giving way
thank god for coffee

February 7

A Tuesday Haiku

sixteenth notes fly by
left behind but not alone
in concert with friends

Still trying to decide on what to tackle for tonight's cleaning task.  What to do in my 15 minutes at home for the day, in between the end of Parenthood and the beginning of "Oh my, I REALLY need to get to bed because 5:10am is really not that far away anymore..."

What can I reduce by 1/3 tonight?

Does cleaning a bunch of junk out of my school bag count?

Stay tuned for the big decision tomorrow...

(NOW I've got you coming back for more, don't I?  Oh, the suspense....)

February 4, 5, and 6

Daily blogging may not be my thing.

Sorry for the lack of exciting, exciting cleaning updates.  I am sure you've had a hard time living without them.

:)

Quick update:  Saturday, we went to a wedding. Just Nat and I, out with other grown ups, all dressed up, for a good 5 hours.  Crazy. 

Also this weekend we took several walks, took the kids swimming at the J, and rearranged our living room. 

You wouldn't believe what a difference that makes.  The room seems huge now, if a bit off-kilter.  The couch is sitting at a jaunty angle to allow us to expose the radiator in front of the window, for which Nat is making custom cover/window seat bench.  Also in the works:  Plans for built-in-looking bookshelves to either side of the fireplace, a new paint color scheme, and a new 2-seater couch and several chairs.  The last 3 items listed are awaiting and influx of time and/or money (or perhaps merely an idle weekend and a calling to go to IKEA....hmmmm...)  but we DID manage to clean thoroughly under not only the couch but the radiator that's been hiding behind it all this time.  Talk about forgotten. 

Also tackled in 30 minutes or less this weekend:  overhaul of pantry in kitchen.  Goodbye expired canned goods, hello to a new arrangement that allows one to see at least 86% of the food we have. Plastic bins on the pull out shelves-- a brainstorm I can't believe I didn't think of til now...

Tonight, most of my cleaning time was spent on something outside of the house.  The kids and I took the can to the car wash where they played hide and seek while I vacuumed, followed by lots of giggling in the automatic wash bay.  Further cleaning time was devoted to unloading the bag of random crap I took out of the van before we left.  So, the only house-bettering job of the evening was to rearrange the junk drawer.   Once again, I got to throw out a lot of old and useless things.  I do believe there is a "rule of 1/3": by removing about 1/3 of whatever is in a space, things can be improved immensely.  So far, it's been pretty easy to get to "1/3" simply by taking out things I won't really miss anyways.  If I can apply the rule of 1/3 to the entire house??  Just imagine!

Haiku for a February night

Sunshine and laughter
Playing tag in the backyard
When did they grow up?

February 2 and 3

We went out to a play last night.  It was grand, it really was.  We didn't get home til just about 11.  On a school night, who knew.

Believe it or not, I DID do a cleaning task last night, just ran out of awake time to blog about it.

Yesterday's project:  the counter to the right of the stove, and the window and wall to go with it.  Time spent: 20 minutes
Tonight's project:  the stove itself (inside and out) and the window and walls above it. Time spent: 25 minutes (while listening to Nat teach Jack how to play Magic.  Which was just about the most entertaining thing ever.  Could've kept cleaning all night except for it being Jack's bedtime...)

I don't know why we've waited this long to wash those windows.  What a difference! And it wasn't even that hard.

Again these past few days, the hardest thing has been stopping after one project is done. It is a struggle to draw that imaginary line between one area and the next, to stop and leave the grime and grit where it is... until tomorrow.

Next up-- pulling out the stove to sweep behind it, and the inside of the pots and pans cupboard.  Yippee.  We need new lining for the bottom of the shelves in there-- cast iron and other metal objects being dragged around for years on end has really done a number on the white contact paper we have in there right now... any recommendations?

I'm going to sleep on the haiku.  Turns out 17 little syllables can be tricky to come up with when you don't start trying til 11pm....

February 1

Welcome to February!  I have to remind myself-- its ACTUALLY February-- because it was over 50 degrees out today.

With the advent of Spring-in-February, and in honor of my new Dyson (which I have yet to order as I made the mistake of asking for advice on Facebook and now I am even more indecisive than I was before...) I announce to you my new Thirty Days challenge:

I will spend 15-30 minutes per day making one small, focused part of my home better.  Cleaner, less cluttered, organized.  Thoroughly improved.  Including the parts no one sees.  And windows.

I am excited about this challenge because I know outer order brings inner order. And I can always use some more of that.  Also, our house is cluttered and generally grimy these days, as if we had two small balls of chaos and one mid-size ball of fur ransacking it day in and day out...

The interior of my dreams is as yet out of reach (mostly because an off-white couch just isn't practical right now, even if it IS Danish modern...).  But, I think I will be happier if it is at least CLEAN.

Tonight I started small, focusing on the area to the right of the kitchen sink.  Coffee station, mug shelf, spice rack, and the walls and floors proximal to those areas.  Time spent: 22 minutes.

It was cathartic, and dare I say, fun.  I threw out 12 jars of ancient spices that would need an ice-pick to remove their contents.  I wiped down each individual jar and lid that remained before putting them back on scrubbed shelves that are now a different color than they were before.  Grout has been whitened, walls have been washed, several nice-sized cobwebs have been relocated to the trash can.  I discovered, in the course of my focused work, that there are a number of areas high up on our walls where patches of green paint show through.  The walls have never been green since we have lived here.  That's two inadequate paint jobs in a row.  Poor house.

In an ideal world my focused work would include a quick, targeted paint touch up.  But, I haven't yet cleaned and organized the paint cupboards, so there would be nothing quick about starting into a paint job just now...

I think the biggest problem with this challenge will not be finding the motivation to do it-- but rather knowing where and when to stop.  I tend to be a wandering cleaner, circulating and doing small tasks as I notice them.  This is different-- and good for me, I think.  Trying to do one small job and do it right.

It was difficult to walk from the kitchen to my computer as I noticed with every step another section of the house just calling out for some attention.  Compared to the gleaming surfaces of the spice rack and counter-to-the-right-of-the-sink, the rest of our home is impossibly grubby.

One day at a time.  30 days (well, 29 this month) is a lot of time and it is my hope that by the time March rolls around, a month of small steps will have made a visible difference.

And because one   challenge just isn't enough... I feel like writing a cleaning blog may not provide quite the writing outlet I might wish for.  Should I continue a daily gratitude post along with?  Or how about, per my lovely poet-friend Donna's suggestion, a daily haiku?

I'll opt to try my hand at the latter tonight.  Do let me know your thoughts, though!

Spray-bottle in hand
Lifting layers of our past
One swipe at a time