spring cleaning - pantry, downstairs rooms

Truthfully, I have been losing steam on spring cleaning.

HOWEVER.

I am almost done.

I have been breaking jobs into smaller pieces and doing them as I have time, such as under the sink in the kitchen, weeding beds outdoors, vacuuming under living room furniture, scrubbing kitchen floor, and wiping walls/baseboards in the kitchen.

So here is what is left in my house:

office (big job--mostly organizational), laundry area (easy!), finish living room (windows and toys), kitchen cabinets

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The Pantry is the only room I photographed....

Before - the pantry

After - the pantry

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I have a renewed appreciation for those who work as housecleaners. I have realized that because I work 15-20 hours per week and still prioritize time for dates, church, playdates, Bible study, running, reading, and downtime..... I am not a perfect homemaker.

Sometimes my house is a mess.

There is dust on my nightstand, fingerprints on my windows, and scariness at the bottom of my kitchen trashcan.

But most of the time I think we have balance.

My boys are nutritiously fed, dressed in clean clothes, and happy! They know they are loved. I enjoy reading to them, taking them outside to play, and teaching them about God and about academic things.

Maybe one day I will have a perfect house. Not today.

a few snapshots of our day

Isaac loves to crawl into anything small enough he can barely fit inside. :) Love this little cutie!

During morning playtime, Noah dragged his blankey and pillow downstairs to the couch for some reading time. He loves these Look-and-Find books we get at the library.

Noah, hard at work, making the letter S.

Isaac, coloring as usual.

One of two pans of homemade granola. I made it one other time and loved it. This time I added flaxseed and sunflower seeds in addition to the almonds (and eventually, craisins). So tasty!

Isaac loves to help out around the kitchen. He is vacuuming up a small pile of crumbs or cheerios almost daily! He also has a fascination with rags and wiping up things. I have no idea why.

Growing green beans on the kitchen window ledge.

This is Noah's little experiment. One bean plant has taken off out of our half dozen pots. A few more are sprouting, but not as quickly!

How I organize my grocery list and meals.

The meal list is just a list, and we don't stick to it perfectly. I just pick whichever meal works best as we go through the week.

For grocery list, I have a printed sheet with items we typically use. When we run out of something, I just mark it on the list. When making the next menu, I can quickly mark which items we will need.

Chocolate chip banana muffins are some of the boys' favorites.

I had to take a picture before they vanished! They were made from the discounted bananas I bought at the grocery store a few days ago.

spring cleaning - master bath, entry/hall, 2 closets

Spring cleaning has taken a back seat to life the past several days, but yesterday and today I did manage to knock out a few zones of the house.

Today I worked on the entry, two entry/coat closets, and downstairs bathroom.

I straightened up, decluttered, wiped down baseboards/doors/walls, vacuumed and mopped. I scrubbed bathroom cabinet and fixtures and wiped down the sink and mirror. Took me about an hour and a half total for these areas. I didn't get pictures of all of them either. Oh well. At least they are clean!

Coat closet tidied :)

This was a huge mess before.... I got rid of several pairs of hats and gloves that we didn't need and also isolated the single gloves to look for their match.

Entry area cleaned. The spiders were starting to overtake the corners. :(

Last night I cleaned our Master bathroom. It took me just under two hours. Yes, I know. That sounds ridiculous. But it is a big job to really deep clean it well. I wiped down the walls/baseboards/doors/outlets, scrubbed shower/tub/toilet/sinks, wiped down fixtures, cleaned window and mirror, dusted and cleaned cabinet, and scrubbed the floor.

The boys were in the bathtub (unpictured on the right) for at least 30 minutes of this. It kept them occupied and out of the way!!

spring cleaning - linen, hall, guest room, kid 1, master bedroom

The past few days I have been hard at work in the upstairs of our house. Despite the heat in the house, I got through the linen closet, hallway, guest room and closet, kid bedroom and closet, and master bedroom. (Master closet needs its own day!) Still remaining upstairs: master bathroom and closet, kid room 2 and multipurpose room.

Spring cleaning can be exhausting, but it is underway little by little.

It is also fun to think of new decor or organizational ideas as I work through each room. We are pretty simple and don't use a lot of decor, but I'm usually open to try new things.

BEFORE: Linen Closet

AFTER: Linen Closet

Washed walls and baseboards, vacuumed, dusted, straightened up. Then I set to work on the hallway (mostly just decluttering and vacuuming).

BEFORE: Hallway

AFTER: Hallway

BEFORE: Hallway

AFTER: Hallway

AFTER: Guest Room.

There was no "before" picture because it looked like this before. =)

However, I spent about an hour cleaning it anyway. Noah helped a little with wall and baseboard washing, window cleaning, vacuuming corners and under bed, and we are good to go!

BEFORE: Kid Room 1

AFTER: Kid Room 1

A semi-helpful child posed in one of these pictures. He did help a little!

Washed walls, doors/knobs and baseboards.

Dusted furniture and washed windows. Vacuumed under bed! Check!

BEFORE: Master Bedroom

Yes, I know, it's pretty pathetic! Not all my fault though...Noah did destroy this room yesterday while I was cleaning other rooms.

AFTER: Master Bedroom

Declutter. Vacuum under bed, dusting, wash windows. Check! I did not go through dressers today. That is a good project for sometime soon though. I also did not wash the walls. I've realized that takes WAY too long especially when they "look" fine. I'll stick with wall washing in bathrooms, boy bedrooms, and spot-cleaning other areas.

spring cleaning - zone 1 - the kids' bathroom

A friend is hosting a spring cleaning challenge to help us all get motivated to do those deep cleaning jobs that just never seem to happen otherwise. So I am going to TRY to blog some of my cleaning, although I am a minimalist so we don't have a ton of "stuff" around (at least I'd like to think that....).

I took a couple of "before pictures" and then set to work.

I scoffed at the idea that it would take over an hour..... but I was wrong! Over an hour later I was finished.

For the first time since we moved here two years ago (gasp!), I washed the walls from top to bottom, laundered the shower curtain, and cleaned the light fixtures. I don't know if I had ever done any of those before!! Sad, I know!!

I also scrubbed the entire room, including doorknobs, trim, the door, tub/shower, sink, cabinet, toilet, mirror, kid stool, trash can, and of course the floor!

The "boy bathroom" smell is gone!

Noted a few things to purchase or think about, including a new faucet fixture, curtain liner and a plug in air freshener.

I put "liners" in the drawers (made of paper towels) and instructed the boys they are not to leave their things lying on the sinktop. I also found a small clock and a poster in the house that I thought I would utilize. I'm thinking the poster could be really good if I cut it up and hung it on canvases. Still thinking on that.

In unrelated spring cleaning, I also wiped down the fridge, and itemized a pile of clothes for Goodwill. It had been sitting there waiting for me to take action on it for over a week. I love itemizing with ItsDeductibleOnline.com since it uploads right into our TurboTax at tax time. Time to get rid of the pile!

still more tomatoes

One way we save money on produce in the summer is to grow it ourselves. I planted several tomato plants (I think it was 8 this year, still not enough!!!!) and as of this week, I am still getting tomatoes on my cherry tomatoes!

Isaac loves to pick the tomatoes and eat them for a snack while we are outside playing in the back yard. The problem is, he still doesn't really understand how to ONLY pick the red ones. He eats the green ones too. (Maybe that's why he got sick??)

Freshly picked and freshly eaten. Goodbye summer tomatoes. I know this is the last we will probably see of you!