Did you have a good weekend? I did! And I’m so happy that it was the last one Andrew will be working! So excited to have two days with him now!

The only bad thing about the weekends is that they end. They just fly right by, and now it’s time to continue with our spring cleaning.

First, I have to catch up on some things I was too busy to do this weekend (mopping, vacuuming, laundry, etc).

I created this schedule for you to recap what we’ve done and to let you know what’s to come.

Today schedule says to clean your bedrooms and bathrooms. I only have 2 bedrooms in our current house. So it’s not too big of a task since I keep it up regularly. I also only have two bathrooms.

(sorry, no actual pictures today, I just wanted to get the schedule out to you asap)

bedrooms:

start by making your bed. your linens should be clean from last week. I try to do this every morning. It makes me feel good when I walk by and see a neat bed.

put away any clothes that are out (my most hated chore).

Clean off your dresser tops. Put things where they go, or toss them.

Take down the curtains to wash.Clean your mirrors, dust all of your furniture, make sure you didn’t miss the light fixtures the other day. Also make sure you got the cob webs from the ceiling and the dust from under the bed when you vacuumed.

I like to spray my lavender oil mix all around the room when I’m done to give it a nice, clean scent.

bathrooms:

A lot of people hate to clean the bathrooms. I don’t mind. Make sure your floor is clean. Wash your rugs with your shower curtain and bedroom curtains. Replace your shower liner (I do this about every 3 months).

Make sure your counter is cleaned off, and wiped down. Again, put things away or toss them. Clean your mirror. I usually do this in our main bath every night when I give El a bath.

Clean your shower.  Clean your toilet.

Double check your light fixtures to make sure they’re clean.

I have several posts on cleaning your bathroom: here, here, and here.

AHHHH!!! Now that your house is all clean, gear up for organizing it!!! Starting tomorrow!

DON’T MISS:

day 1

day 2

day 3

day 4

THIS IS FOR DINNER TONIGHT:

Mama C’s Enchiladas

And YAY for the weekend! This is my husband’s last weekend working (except for the once a month Army) in over two years! I am soooo happy we will have him home more! Hopefully the weather is nice, if not, you can do today’s chore tomorrow. 

Okay, now that you’ve placed your order, Wash all of your windows. (or wait until your new Get Clean Kit comes in). Inside and out. If you have old storms or screens, vacuum out the sills. I always spray the sills good with more lavender oil to keep the bugs out. 

Then: enjoy the rest of your weekend. Relax with your family and savor the new spring life God gave us.

~~~

What are your other plans this weekend?

I am off for a busy weekend to throw my best friend of over 20 years (since were 4) her first, long awaited baby shower!

I also have a lot of “work” to catch up on, and plan to create a few things. My creative juices are overflowing because they’ve been contained for so long.

ps:

First off, THANK YOU all for your awesome comments, emails, etc! I am so humbled by you, and I cannot believe how fast this little blog has grown!

I have TWO fun giveaways for you coming up (my first ones)
I have a 3 part series starting after spring cleaning
The third addition to my freezer cooking posts will go up after spring cleaning, too!

Friday:
As soon as you get up, throw those covers in the washer. (it will probably take all day to get all of your linens washed.) If the weather is nice, let them dry outside. While all of the linens are off (mattress pad included) clean the mattress. I like to spray a little lavender oil on my mattress & sprinkle baking soda on it. After about 30 minutes (or at some point when I remember) I vacuum it up. Love the fresh smell when I crawl into bed. If is a flippable mattress, go ahead and flip it. If it has stains, use your favorite spot remover on it (not bleach!). 

In between loads of linens, wipe down the ceiling fans and other light fixtures. Again, microfiber cloths or old socks collect the dust best. 

Now go room to room and with your Basic G, wipe down all of your knobs and light switches to disinfect and kick those winter germs. 

That shouldn’t take too long. Now, get your Basic H and microfiber cloth and go room to room and remove any scuff marks (or in my case, crayon and pencil markings) from the walls and furniture. It may take a little elbow grease, but it so much better than painting! And unlike magic erasers, it won’t discolor your paint. 

Don’t forget to put your linens back on your bed before bedtime so you can get a good night’s sleep!!!
And gear up for tomorrow!

Cookie dough cheesecake bars {recipe}

Pin It

Thursday:
are you tired? make yourself some energy tea and get ready to clean those carpets. Dirty carpet is one of my biggest pet peeves. seriously. right up there with carts left in the middle of parking lots.

remove all of the furniture that you can. if you have an area rug, take it to another room (but leave it rolled out so you can scrub it, too).

I use a spot cleaner as needed (which is more often than I’d like to admit with my cocker that still has an excited-pee problem), but about every 6 months I borrow a big steam cleaner from a friend or the rent one from the store.

   

I mix Organic Basic H, Basic G, and Nature Bright to wash the carpet  (about 1 T of Basic H and Basic G and 1-2 scoops of Nature Bright per gallon of water), Basic H is to clean, Basic G is to disinfect,and Nature Bright is to bright dull carpet. 

Here is another great post about naturally cleaning carpets. Did you know that otc carpet cleaners are one of the most toxic household cleaners? You know that stuff your babies crawl around on all day.
After the carpet is wash and dried, vacuum it again (don’t those lines make you giddy?). 

If you’re not too tired, go ahead and dust your entire house. Use a microfiber cloth or an old sock. Vacuum around the ceiling and get the corners. Remove all those knick knacks and wipe down all of your shelves, mantels, tvs, and furniture.

Have I mentioned how excited I am for longer, brighter days? As a SAD sufferer, spring never comes soon enough.

With spring comes new life, a fresh start.

And a fresh clean home (with a little work).

If you’ve been following along, you know I’ve already purged stuff (I could probably do it again).

I also made my list of things each room needs and gathered my supplies.

And now it’s time for the nitty gritty.

I cannot function with a dirty floor. It’s part of my OCD. I sweep/mop/vacuum my main living areas several times a week. But that’s exactly where I’m going to start with my spring cleaning.

Because I have a toddler, I can’t get everything done in 3 days like I use to, so I’m going to pace myself this year. I typically keep my home pretty clean (again thank you, ocd). Here is my normal cleaning list:

Every night I wipe down my kitchen counters, sink, and fridge. And we always walk around with El at night and pick up her toys.

But now I will kick it up for spring cleaning. Here are this week’s tasks:

today:

sweep and mop all hard floors. pull out all of the furniture to really get it done good. It’s almost Easter, but we don’t need dust bunnies in the corners. I use a steam mop (that I lovelovelove). If you are using an actual dry mop, here is a great post about naturally cleaning all of your hard floors. My biggest trouble area is behind the trash can. how does all of that sticky mess get there? ick. I even found a nice sticky blob under my fridge. seriously, how did it get there?

while I’m here, I will also clean the baseboards where needed. I use my organic Basic H all purpose cleaner and a microfiber cloth (or an old sock) and clean up any dirt or scuffs.

Now, go ahead and vacuum all of the carpets (closets included), wash any rugs that you can. be sure to move the furniture out and get all the crumbs from under the couch and reach as far with your hose as you can under your bed and dressers. I always spray a mix of water and natural lavender oil around my baseboards. As a natural fragrance, but mostly as a insect repellant. Yep, spiders do not like it! It dramatically reduced our brown recluse issue.

Prepare for the rest of the week. I will post more details of these each day.

Wednesday:

sweep and mop all hard floors

clean the baseboards

vacuum all of the carpet

Thursday:

clean the carpet

vacuum it again

dust your entire house 

Friday:

throw those covers in the washer

clean the mattress

wipe down the ceiling fans and other light fixtures

wipe down knobs and light switches

remove marks from the walls

Saturday:

Wash all of your windows

Relax

I will post next week’s list on Sunday night or Monday morning!

***

ps. if you haven’t already, get your get clean kit now! Remember, all proceeds go to The Red Cross! And when you buy it as a new member you will also get over $100 in free Cinch products!

pss. if you want to share my button on your blog, or on pinterest feel free! I’ll put the button on the sidebar.

Last week did you go through every room and clean out stuff you don’t need?!? I did! The more I get rid of, the more I find I can do without! I tackled my kitchen cabinets last week, too! Oi!

Well if not, do it this week while you go through every room to make a list of things to do! I take a notepad and go through every room and make notes of things that need to be done. I try to think, “If I had to list this house for sell right now, what would need to be done?”.

Here’s a small sample of my master bedroom/bathroom list:

1) Finish painting the trim (yes, I’ve lived here almost 2 years with only 1/2 the trim painted, because I was 9 months pregnant when I started and couldn’t finish, and Andrew was still living in CT).

2) Complete the hope chest to desk transition

3) Hang pictures

4) Paint light sconce and medicine cabinet

5) Build storage unit for over the toilet

You don’t have to do them this week, but try to get them all done before Christmas! If you’re like me, there will be more next spring.

Now the fun part: what you will need for cleaning:

• Good vacuum (make sure you clean out the canister or replace the bag and clean out the suctions)
• Broom & Mop (I love my steam mop)
• Carpet Cleaner if you have carpet. You can rent a rugdr for about $20, but I’m sure if you send out a plee on facebook one of your friends has one.
• Natural cleaners (no, vinegar will not do!) – you don’t want to make your home dirtier using toxic cleaners.
• Microfiber cloths
• Extra boxes or trash bags to clean out clutter as you go.

I recommend Shaklee’s entire Get Clean Kit. It has everything you need! All of your cloths and bottles and even comes in an organized cleaning caddy! I bought it last August and haven’t used 1/2 of it! It seems like a lot of money, but trust me, it actually saves you a ton of money as a little goes a looong way! One bottle of Basic H is the equivalent to over 4,000 bottles of windex, and cost only 3 cents per bottle of all purpose mix!

Are you ready for the 15th? I cannot wait to get this house clean again!!!

Starting March 15, I will begin a new Spring Cleaning Series. Spring has arrived pretty early here in Nashville, and I am itching to air out the house and make things fresh again.

I didn’t know this until recently, but Spring Cleaning really is a far less painful thing that it use to be. Now days we can keep up with it year round, but my grandmother’s soot from her wood stove made me realize where the term “spring cleaning” came from! Apparently, it’s from way back when the majority of people (not just my grandma) had wood stoves. They would spend an entire week, sometimes weeks, scrubbing the soot from every surface of their home!

Isn’t it nice to just be able to cut the thermostat off and open the windows now?

Alas, the dust bunnies still collect (if not more with forced heat) and the walls still get grungy with toddlers, so it may not be as hard, but it’s still quiet a bit to spring cleaning!

I will be focusing on cleaning out as well as cleaning up! Last year I started on a huge purge, and I’m still purging things (isn’t it amazing the things we bring home).

So before we officially start, join me this week in going from room and getting rid of things! My rule: If it isn’t functional, or if it doesn’t make you happy – GET RID OF IT!  Donate it to a local agency (women’s shelter, outreach center, etc), sell it on craigslist, or trash it if it’s trash! Trust me, it’s very fulfilling! 

If you want to join along, I will be hosting my very first link party on March 15! Please share the word and link-up! 

Pin It