Spring Cleaning: Week 1

I am following Money Saving Mom this month in the 30-day house cleaning challenge in an attempt to clean up my house (it really needs it).  You can follow my progress all week through Instagram (#cleanin30), Twitter (#cleanin30) or Facebook.  You can also join in the challenge fun.  Download the 31 Day House Cleaning Guide that we are following and you, too, can have a sparkling, or at least somewhat cleaner, house.

After reading back over this, I can't believe I'm going to show these pictures on the Internet.  I'm going to loose my rock star organizing status and let you guys see how my house really looks most of the time!  Just don't think too badly of me, OK?

Day 1: Surface clean kitchen and living room

Day 1 started with Munchkin #1 throwing up in the middle of the night and all morning long.  Needless to say, surface cleaning was not high on my priority list.  Keeping up with sick person laundry and cleaning floors from where said sick person got sick, was much more urgent.  So I did Day 1 on Day 2 and it was all good.  The world didn't stop turning or anything.

I didn't have the energy to tackle both rooms in one day, so I just worked on the kitchen.  Here's how it was to begin with.  I'm almost embarrassed to show these pictures.  It was b.a.d.

Before the clean up - counter clutter galore!

I tackled the clutter, put things back where they belonged, sorted through lots of school papers and mail and, finally, got the counters cleared off. I even got the kids in on the action (what better way to spend Spring Break, right?).  They sorted through their school papers.  Anything with a clean white back gets put into the recycled printer paper pile.  All others get thrown away.

My sorting helper.
Getting to use a staple remover adds to the fun!

Then there were these:

While I love all my reusable grocery bags and my 31 totes, finding places to store them all is tricky.  Then I remembered one of my favorite tricks - command hooks on the inside of a closet door.  Ta-da!

Here's Day 1 before and after:

Before - Yikes!

After - Ah! I can see the counters again.

Day 2: Clean bathrooms

This one was much easier for me.  I had bathroom cleaning on my list anyway due to the second child in 2 weeks being sick.  Everything needed disinfecting with bleach.  I cleaned 4 sinks (I left Julie's sink for her to clean since it's one of her weekly chores), 3 toilets and 1 germy tile floor (we're talking on hands and knees with bleach wipes scrubbing all over the floor - fun times).  I decided to leave the tub and shower for another day because I like to procrastinate like that when it comes to cleaning.

I didn't take a "before" picture because, well, you can't see germs, so I thought there was no point.  But here is the "after" picture in the kids' bathroom.

Clean and germ-free, we hope.

Day 3: Surface clean bedrooms

I decided to tackle one corner in my bedroom that has been frustrating me for months.  Way back in January when we had lots of snow, Tim set up a little office area in the bedroom so he could work from home for several days.  And it never got put away.  And more stuff got added.  And I couldn't get into my closet without moving out the table every time, which was annoying.  Day 3's task was the perfect reason to clear it all up.  The task technically meant to clean all the bedrooms but the kids clean their bedrooms once a week for chore money, and I wouldn't want to take away their opportunity to earn, now would I.

Cleaning up involved listing several things on our local Facebook yard sale to get them out of the house (selling them all today - yay!), folding lots of laundry, putting wayward tools back in the tool cabinet and finally doing a Pinterest project that I will tell you all about next week.

Here's the "before" and "after" shots:

Before - I think junk just attracts more junk.

After - Yay!  There really is a floor there and I can get into my closet again.

Day 4: Surface clean an extra room

I really wanted to pick the den as my extra room, but our den is huge and it's hugely cluttered so I decided to pick one corner of my den.  Cheating?  Maybe a little bit, but if I try to clean too much and get overwhelmed then I end up just stopping.  So a little is better than nothing.

This project was a combination of my kids cleaning up the Lego/train table, Tim taking down the clothes racks I used to prepare for the consignment sale and me cleaning up where an end table used to be.

The before and after:

Before - Sigh!  So much straightening needed.

After - Maybe they can actually play Legos on the table now.
Just a thought...

Day 5: Surface clean the living room

This was a speedy cleaning day.  I'm getting ready to go relax with some high school friends for the weekend.  Luckily, the task for the day is to clean the living room and it wasn't too bad (surprising, I know).

Here's the before and after:

Before - mainly Easter basket things to put away and a few toys on the floor.

After - fresh and clean.

Now it's your turn.  Tell me which rooms you've cleaned this week.