Thursday, March 15, 2007
Here is part of our pile. You can't see the other box on the sink, but it is full of books that we went through and are getting rid of. I love getting rid of stuff! I usually am not very good at it. I have the mindset of "I KNOW I will need that someday!" So I just don't really get rid of too much stuff...ever.
Just thought I would show you this pic. I can't remember if I put it up before or not. Anyway, here is a before and after of our basement. Gotta love the blue shag carpet and the wallpaper on the wall is the fabric kind.
Here is what we have done differently. New floor(although that was not a big priority until our basement leaked. Then we didn't really have much of a choice!), new paint, new light fixtures, and new countertops. You can't really see it on the pic above, but they had pink formica countertops down there. Lovely. :) Can you see how the light reflected so much off the wood wall? That would be from the furniture polish I made! Looks pretty spiffy, huh?
That is about it from over here. I now must go and try to get some rest. My arm feels like it is going to fall off again from all that scrubbing and polishing. And I still have the hallway down there to do! Ugh! Oh well, at least it doesn't have to be done too often. Hopefully tomorrow I can put up new pics of the girls and show the 'new' toy we found at "The Love Store" as Ambry calls it. :)
Labels: redo basement, Spring Clean 2007, stuff
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
I have joined this challenge over at The Homespun Heart. I think it will keep me motivated to keep on going. I sometimes get overly excited about cleaning and organizing everything and then burn out. But here are pictures of the rooms that I have done so far. Probably very boring to most, but for me, it is a huge feeling of accomplishment.
First up is Ambry's room. In here I did:
*the woodwork--polished all of it.
*dusted everything.
*sorted and cleaned out her closet.
*went through all of her clothes and got her spring/summer clothes out. Put away anything that did not fit right for Piper.
*went through all toys and put away in proper spot. This is a huge pet peeve for me. I can not stand it when toys are not in the proper bin. I also went through all her books and they are also sorted.
*vacuumed everything and did all over wipedown.
Piper's room:
*polished all the wood in her room as well.
*went through all of her clothes and sorted out anything that didn't fit anymore and put in storage. Took out her spring/summer wardrobe and hung up/put in drawers.
*dusted everything.
*vacuumed under furniture and did all over wipedown.
Caleb and my room:
*polished all wood. (By this time my arm was seriously numb and ready to fall off!)
*went through all of our clothes and tossed a bunch of it into a sell pile.
*vacuumed under everything that I could reach--my furniture is WAY too heavy to move all by myself.
*general wipedown of everything.
Main bathroom
*wiped down everything
*polished all wood
*scrubbed floor with soft scub to get out the icky brown stuff that had settled into the grooves. Nasty! I'm not sure what the stuff is--probably hair spray and such that is harder to clean off with just vinegar and water.
*I went through the drawers, but still need to make some sort of organizing system. I can't stand it when stuff is just thrown in there, so that is something I still need to do.
Kitchen/dining room
*polished all wood--except for cabinets. I'm hoping to redo those this spring.
*cleaned table--dusted all the pieces. The hated job of removing dust from all the nooks and crannies.
*scrubbed tile. Literally got down and dirty with a toothbrush and a cup of bleach and scrubbed every square inch and centimeter of tile grout. I can't believe that the actual shade of grout is supposed to be a light tan--not the brown that it was. Then mopped with bleach water. Then went back over with plain water to make sure there wasn't leftover bleach on the floor. This job alone was spread over my whole Saturday and took about a total of four-five hours to complete.
*dusted light above table.
Basement/Storage room
*went through all of clothes bins and sorted.
*Caleb swept out and sorted everything so now it is nice and organized.
Living Room:*poished all wood.
*dusted everything.
*moved couches and tables and vacuumed under them.
*also polished stairwell going to the basement.
That is basically as far as I have gotten so far. I still have the laundry room to do, the pantry, clean out kitchen cabinets, and then the main basement room. I just did the toy room and the ping pong room. The room that is left is Gerrit's and there is no way I am going in there! Once I have everything completely cleaned and wiped down and scrubbed down and every other bit of clean then I will start on my projects again--painting the closets, touching up paint, etc. So get started on those spring cleaning projects because before you know it, spring will be here and you aren't going to want to be stuck in your house cleaning! Head on over to The Homespun Heart and be inspired there also to get started on cleaning.
Labels: Spring Clean 2007
Saturday, March 03, 2007
I found out what the random charge on my bank card was. Apparently Costco will charge a card a hundred dollars when you get gas to protect themselves. It never goes through, it just sits on there until the gas charge goes through and they get their money. Then they take it off. What a relief!
I also have caught some kind of spring cleaning bug. Not the full blown, air out the house bug, but a smaller one. I have sorted the girls clothes and mine, and set aside stuff for a garage sale in the spring. All of our closets are nice and organized now. I love that! Next item on the to-do list for our rooms is to paint the closets. I would have already started, but I have no more white paint.
I found a recipe for homemade furniture polish on another blog (can't remember whose though). Just mix one part lemon juice to two parts vegetable oil or olive oil (or whatever kind of oil that runs in that line) and mix really well. I got my woodwork done in the hallway, 3 doors, and my 2 bi-fold closet doors in my room. Let's just say my arm feels like it is going to fall off. But at least my wood is very shiny. The polish works really well. But it does leave things a little greasy. I didn't follow the exact directions though. It said to rub it on with a lint free rag and then rub off with another clean rag. I only rubbed on. The wood on the doors and closets won't matter because that stuff was so terribly dry it felt like sand paper. The wood on the stairs though is a little bit greasy. Gerrit was not too impressed. I still think it looks really good though. I just threw the leftovers in the fridge since I didn't know what else to do with it and will have to finish all the rest of the wood in the house another day. I never realized just how much wood there is in here. Oh well. A day at a time I suppose. But for how much it cost to make that polish, I will definitely use it again. It got my wood ten times more shiny than pledge or anything else ever has. And for a fraction of the cost...even better!
And, finally, here are some pics of Piper last night. This girl is the HAPPIEST baby in the world. Honestly. She only cries if she is hungry or needs a clean diaper. This was taken downstairs last night, so not the best lighting. Grandma M., I don't know if you remember this toy, but this is one that you gave Ambry when she turned one. Piper absolutely loves it! I will turn it to the song setting and pull the handle and she goes crazy. Kind of like she is doing here. It is hillarious! She pushes herself up and just rocks back and forth with a huge grin the entire time the song is playing. Too stinkin' cute!
Hopefully I will have pictures of Ambry later. She hasn't been cooperating too well though, so we'll see. :)Labels: Piper pics, Spring Clean 2007
Thursday, March 01, 2007
I also went through all of my clothes. Some of it I just don't know what I was thinking. I mean, were my b**bes ever small enough to fit into some of those tops??? I highly doubt it. Hence, what in the world was I thinking? I have a really hard time getting rid of clothes--I have the mentality of it WILL fit someday--but I forced myself to get rid of a bunch. I wonder if anyone on craig's list will buy adult clothes. Right now I have a huge pile of it on my dining room table and all the girl's clothes that I am trying to sell surrounding my computer and sorted on both of my couches. Can anyone say PACKRAT? I don't know if Caleb was happy/mad that I was taking out all the tubs and sorting and getting rid of stuff or if he just saw a huge mess of clothes laying around. He did say he was happy I was finally getting rid of stuff, but that he knew he was going to be the one hanging it all up for the garage sale in spring. I think it will be one of the biggest garage sales I have had so far. LOTS and LOTS of clothes--from myself and from the girls. If I can't get some of this furniture to sell on craig's list, then I will also have a lot of that too. Oh, well. It is all fun for me. I love having garage sales. I actually want to try to find one of those spinner things like the professional garage sale people and be able to hang all of the clothes on that instead of trying to rig a broom handle across two ladders. I have enough stuff this year that Caleb just might help me find one. Too fun! :)
Ever notice baby's eyes in some pictures? Like they just experienced the most scariest, horriblest, terriblest thing in the world? Or maybe it is just my baby that looks like that. Anyway, here are two pics that I thought were so cute even though she has the scared look on her face. Hope everyone has a good Thursday!
Labels: Ambry and Piper pics, Spring Clean 2007
Monday, January 08, 2007
Caleb and I have said goodbye to 2 Precious Moments, a stroller, a bed, a hutch, and some books. All have gone to better homes where they can be enjoyed. And let me tell you...it is so nice to get rid of stuff and get more space. Not that I didn't like my stuff, but it is so nice to get the moola for it. We have someone looking at our entertainment center right now. That is our last big piece that we are going to have to sell right now. I have a dresser in the basement to refinish, a desk in the garage to clean, and that is pretty much it. Next, I am going to tackle getting rid of clothes and Precious Moments. So if anyone out there needs baby girl clothes or Precious Moments, PLEASE feel free to let me know!!!
I am also getting our tax stuff all ready on time this year. I was actually fairly well organized this year, so it isn't taking too much of an effort. I heard something about health costs also-that if they are above a certain amount of your income, then you get the overage back. That would be so great for us since we had so many things this year. I wonder if dental counts towards that because that would be even better! We'll have to see. I am even going to call and make my tax appointment tommorrow. I just want to get it done with as quickly as possible so I can get my filing cabinet cleared out and start putting this year's stuff into it. I love a fresh new start with things like that.
We finally had snow today! Ambry was so excited. It gave her something to look forward to when she went outside. Of course, outside time didn't last quite as long either though since she got cold in a whole whopping ten minutes. Oh well, at least she went out. She is becoming quite the little home-body. She definitely prefers staying home with momma and Piper to going out. She does love going to her cousins, but that is pretty much it. We started learning her letters today too and a little bible verse. She did pretty good. We are just going to take it really slow and see how she does, but she was so excited to get up this morning, get dressed, clean her room, and get started on "school". It was so cute. We are just doing a letter a week. I don't know if that is really slow or not, but I suppose she'll let me know if it isn't. This is where I went to get ideas on how to start with her. It is a great website. Check it out if you have time.
Labels: Spring Clean 2007
