Cleaning Fool

I have been a cleaning fool for the past 2 weeks.

It is like that crazy nesting phase I got while I was pregnant.

I let the housework go completely in between camping trips and the disaster I fondly think of as my home was finally starting to get to me. Plus with the MIL planning on visiting next week, I was starting to go a little psycho.

Oh yes, I said next week. What happened to her being here while I am on vacation in 2 weeks? She just decided to change her plans last night. Ummmm, that is too bad MIL. I can NOT change my vacation time with this little of notice. So Hubbs can entertain her while I relax at work.

Anyway, back to cleaning talk.

I started with the office/playroom. I had gone through the boys toys a long time ago. The boys got to keep some, a lot went into the trash, some went to my mom for my nephew, but the majority went into the living room to be given to Step MIL for her CPS kids.

FIL came by to see our "new to us" truck yesterday so I put all the toys that were still sitting in my living room into the back of his Tahoe while he was playing with the boys.

Yay, I have my living room back again!

After FIL left, MIL called to tell us that she was changing her plans.

Huh? Dude! What the hell?

So I took my frustrations out on the bathroom.

You all already know that I am a stockpiler, right? Well, if you didn't, surprise! Please don't think I am like those hoarders you see on Intervention or some other TLC show. I (try to) only keep things we are going to use. Unless it is free, then I give it away to someone who can use it or it gets shelved until I have a yard sale.

What can I say, I love all things coupon! Especially if it smells good because with all these boys in my household, things can start to smell like ass, quickly.

My problem is, I can't keep things organized between stockpile shopping trips, which used to be every weekend. So my bathroom was stuffed full of stuff. I pulled everything out of the cabinets, out of the drawers and off the shelves. That all went in the hall. I grabbed a box and started filling it with the crap like body spray, body glitter, mousse, gel, hairspray, volumizer, gloss oil, sculpting wax, teeny tiny hair clippies, expensive shampoos and conditioners. All the junk that I was never going to use went into that box and set in the bedroom for the yard sale.

I just realized that I could have supplied a strip club for a year with all that stuff. Aaahhhh, the pre-children days.

After all the junk was gone, I organized all the stuff I was keeping.

It looks like a store in my bathroom. All the shampoos, conditioners, bubble bath, buddy bars, band-aids, body wash, and everything else body related are put away in their own rows. The kitchen cleaners, the bathroom cleaners, the Pine-Sol, carpet shampoo, mildew remover, oven cleaner, CLR, Magic Erasers and everything else cleaning related are put away in rows too!

I even got all of my smell good stuff under control. The Glade candles, the refills, the Air-wicks, their refills, the Plug-Ins, their refills, the Renew-zits, Febreeze and all that stuff are all organized in drawers.

My biggest accomplishment was getting space for bath towels. Bath towels are my Achilles Heel! I am really picky about towels. I can't dry off my body with something that might have touched somebody else's ass. I just can't do it.

So everybody gets a new towel, every time they bathe. And I only do laundry once a week. 4 people x 7 days x 1 or 2 bath/showers a day=a TON of bath towels. And washcloths, and hand towels.

Usually, after I do a load of laundry it all goes into the laundry pile until someone needs something to wear/dry off with. Whatever was needed gets removed from the laundry pile. Nothing ever gets put away. If I am feeling super motivated, the clean stuff might end up in their designated laundry basket. Kids clothes are supposed to go in one basket, Hubbs socks get their own basket, grown up pajamas, thongs, boxers and my socks go in another basket, and towels get the biggest basket.

Tonight I am going to not only sort all the towels, I am going to fold them and put them away in their new home, under the sink. For the first time in almost 7 years, I finally have the room to put the towels IN THE BATHROOM, where they belong.

That, in itself, will be one of my greatest accomplishments.

If I end up finished with the towels with enough time before the season premiere of House, I might start on the pantry.

The hall is pretty clean.

The kitchen is good, except for the floor needing to be mopped and the walls around the stove wiped down or repainted. I try to stay out of the kitchen as much as possible. It makes my head hurt. Hubbs will have to deal with that room.

The living room is passable, except for the carpet smells like dirty feet. But the steam cleaner can be ran on Saturday or Sunday before nap time.

You would think with my anal retentiveness and my OCD issues, my house would be cleaner than it is.