Cleaning Rampage

You can't tell it by looking at my house yet, but I went on a cleaning rampage this weekend. It started with vacuuming the baseboards, which is a concept that, even if your husband KICKS ASS in the housekeeping department, still seems to elude even the best of them. ;) (Love you honey! Really, I do!)

As I was vacuuming the baseboards of the seemingly 13 years of dog fur that had accumulated and somehow (ahem...) missed the last pass of the magical creation called the vacuum (no, seriously, imagine life before them!!!)... Anyway, I digress... I was vacuuming the baseboards and decided to get behind my nightstand and the headboard/bed because they sit out from the wall a little. (Sleigh bed -- large arc -- wasted space) Behind/under the headboard, we threw some extra pillows and you can imagine what they looked like after a few months of housekeeping neglect.

So, after the baseboards, I moved on to the in depth project of washing every single pillow in the house. Even the feather ones. Why do I single out the feather ones? Well, when you put a pair in the washer at night, then wake up to put them into the drier in the morning, there is a chance that you could open the washer to find THIS (especially if you have dogs that like to -apparently not so delicately - play hide-and-seek under the bed where said pillows were stored!):



The wash and dry and repeat routine for many many pillows continued all weekend long. (Side note, those blasted feather pillows - the ones that MADE it through the wash cycle - are still not dry after FIVE rounds through the drier!!!) While that was happening, I focussed on the "guest room" in an effort to make it more "US" friendly, and less "guest" friendly -- seeing as it's been used by guests a total of probably 5 nights since the house was built!) and set my sights on first of all clearing off and removing the bed, and then cleaning out some, if not all, of the junk in there.

Well, I did make progress, but some of it was not as I'd hoped.

Yes, the bed is now in the garage awaiting a long term storage bag, as we do intend to getting a bigger home in the not too distant future and could use it later. (Right now we are still really enjoying the comfort of living well below our means - especially in today's economic climate!) However, the piles of crap just got bagged and stacked in the closet for the most part. Some of it needs to go, as we have never used many of the 57 blankets we got in the year Abby was born. Yet, I know SOME of the bigger ones she could use now that she's in a big bed, so some will stay.

Since we've all but decided we're not going to TTC anymore, all the baby stuff can go, so I made separate bags of outgrown clothes and receiving blankets that will eventually go. What was hard was that basket of maternity clothes that I've been avoiding since the start of my last major funk.

Ouch.

What almost sucked worse than packing it all up was telling Marti that I was making progress in the room, but packing the maternity clothes was rough. No, saying the words was not the sucky part. The sucky part was when he instantly walked out the door and on to something different without saying a word or offering a hug or anything.

Validation of feelings = 0

So, anyway, before I got too far along with the project, something great happened! I had been thinking about an old, old friend this weekend and meant to get in touch with another that I have known equally long to see if she had her contact info still. (Since 2nd grade, and I think we're all turning - or have turned - 40 this year.) Anyway, I don't think I've even emailed this old friend since the early 90s and lost touch back then. Out of the clear blue sky, I got an email from the same friend I was thinking about!!!! GO FIGURE!!!!! What are the chances??? I was literally blown away!

So, in my usual long drawn out way, I have a point. I told her that I didn't have time this weekend to type out all the things I wanted to say to her after all this time since I was really wrapped up in this project, but that I would get back to her very shortly. (And I gave her this link, so maybe she's reading this and knowing I'll get to that email tonight!) I also told her I'd take a picture of the mess before and after, just for her, and post here. So, without further adieu, here is what my guest room has looked like for the better part of two years.







And, finally, the closet with said offending basket of maternity clothes and miscellaneous other baby gear:


Like I said, a lot of stuff just went into compartmentalized bags and into the closet to deal with later, but much of the laundry found a home, and at least the junk is sorted, so when I DO deal with it, it can be small chunks of dealing instead of not knowing where to begin, as it has been.

I'm not ready for the "after" pictures yet, but it's coming along! I discovered the view out of that window is really nice! I watched a quail on the wall, as well as a pretty good sized lizard. Then I saw a covey of quail and uncountable babies running around in the desert across the street from us. It will be a nice view if I can manage a work out routine that starts shortly after my arrival home in daylight hours. If it's dark though, I'm closing the blinds. I don't want to be crazy lady on the elliptical in the open window at night.

Marti had a friend help him pick up the equipment today and get it upstairs. I think based on how much I actually use it (and the effectiveness, too, maybe) he'll add more as we go. One huge outlay of cash at a time, right?