Tag Archives: Cleaning

Some Home Updates!

Good afternoon!

We are having a lovely four-day weekend here at the manse!! LOL! πŸ˜‰

I thought I would share some new pics of some things going on around our place this weekend! πŸ˜‰

Here are some pics of our garden! It is so fun to watch the plants grow and getting out there and weeding, pruning, and making everything look lovely!!

We are so jazzed to see how much lettuce we are going to have! They are growing so much faster then us newbie-farmers could even imagine!

Here are our snap-peas, and 3 strawberry plants! We already have one red strawberry!! We will have to flip a coin to see who gets to eat it!! πŸ˜‰

Here are the two blueberry bushes! I can’t wait to see how much they produce! πŸ˜‰

Here are a few of our herbs!

Here are a few more! We have 3 pots of herbs growing! πŸ˜‰

Next, on to our living room!! As many of you know, my sweetie and I are getting ready for Bariatric surgery. One of my goals before surgery is to make sure that the house is clean, organized, purged, and no muss, no fuss ready for us to just concentrate on getting better!

One of the things we have been hearing from past patients is that a recliner is almost imperative to post-surgery resting! Well, I have been a long time naysayer of recliners. They are large, ugly, and I have just really never liked them! So, when I picked up two leather ones this weekend, I was sure that I was losing my mind, but my rationale behind doing that was twofold! 1. I know that we will both be having surgery, and I don’t want either one of us to have to sleep on the couch! 2. It has been really hard to have company over when there is just not enough seats in our place!

So after a ton of time spent cleaning, purging, and redecorating, and along with the help of my FABULOUS sweetie, we were able to take our living room from this:

To this:

Aaaaaaah…SO MUCH BETTER!!

The feeling in here is now so much more calming. We moved the large television out from in front of the window, so the room is now awash in sunlight! What a much more positive feeling, and way less drab and gloomy!!

 

Also, now that I have a bunch more of our favorite art work on the wall, the space feels sooo much more like us!!! I can’t wait to see what the rest of the house looks like once we are finished, but we are really so close!! I will make sure to share pictures with you as more progress is made!!

Here is to a FABULOUS evening!! ;-)

Β If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!

Happy Tuesday!

Good evening!

This is going to be a quick post this evening, as I am on a cleaning roll!! As you may remember, if you read my post the other day, I am working on getting my art studio completely reorganized, purged, cleaned up, and ready for my next round of some serious arting time!!! If you saw the pictures from the other day, you would agree that THIS is QUITE the undertaking!! I am motivated to get it done though, my sweetie has gotten me a gift certificate to my favorite day spa to get a spa pedicure!!

WHAT A GREAT MOTIVATER!!!

That and the fact that I will have an awesomely clean workspace to get some new art pieces created!! I CAN’T WAIT!!!

Anyway, I am going to head upstairs and get a crackin’!! I am so close to being done that I am thinking that tomorrow will be the day that I can call the spa and make my appointment!! YEAH!!

I will make sure to keep you posted, and I will share pics as soon as my art studio is done!!

Here is to a FABULOUSLY PRODUCTIVE evening!! ;-)

Β If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!

Cleaning House!

Good evening!

Things are going pretty-freakin-fabulously here at our place!! Jason and I are both doing really well with our new pre-bariatric surgery clean living diet. All veggies, all the time, lean protein, and 2 servings of fruit, and dairy daily!! I am not sure exactly when it happened, but I have acquired an AMAZING amount of energy, and it has really gotten me motivated to not only continue on with my arting, but get our house back in tip-top shape!!

As I have been busy re-creating myself and having a blast with my newly re-found creative side, for the past 6 months, our house and all of the chores necessary to keep a nice, clean, clutter-free home has really been suffering; and I realized as I had surprise company this past weekend, that the state of my home has really started to bother me. SO, instead of whining and complaining about it, I decided that it was time to take come serious action, and take back control of the chaos that has become our home!!

The action I decided to take was a combination of making a plan, and taking the whole process in baby steps, so I don’t overwhelm myself and just give up for the next 6 months. So what I did was first create a list of all of the household chores that I could think of:

  • Dishes
  • Counter tops
  • Laundry
  • Making the bed
  • Bathrooms
  • Floors
  • Dusting
  • Taking out the garbage
  • Windows
  • Entry way
  • Back patio
  • Bathe the dogs
  • Wash the dog bowls
  • Picking up after ourselves

I then took everything on this list and then assigned a day of the week for each chore, leaving Sunday open to just relax.

Next I decided to take it a step further, and made a wish list of chores I wish would get done around here like:

  • Vacuuming the vent covers
  • Vacuuming the refrigerator coils
  • Cleaning under the fridge
  • Cleaning under the stove
  • Wash the Car
  • Detailing the car
  • Pressure washing the window blinds
  • Cleaning the oven
  • Cleaning the barbecue
  • Shampooing the carpets
  • Cleaning out the dryer vents
  • Organizing the coat closet
  • Organizing the game closet
  • Organizing the Linen closet
  • Organizing the laundry room
  • Organizing the art studio
  • Organizing the walk-in closet
  • Organizing Jason’s closet

I then decided how often I wanted these tasks done; monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. Next I wrote on a paper the months of the year, and took each task and assigned it a month in which it would get done in.

Then I thought about all the tasks around the house that have to get done, but are one-time things that may not actually need to be scheduled on an ongoing basis. I decided to make a list of these things too:

  • Replace the broken linen closet door
  • Paint and install the baseboards
  • Install hardwood floors throughout 1st floor
  • Paint the front door
  • Paint the garage door
  • Paint the laundry room
  • Rebuild shelving in the laundry room
  • Reupholstering the 2 chairs and ottoman in the garage
  • Refinish the coffee table in the garage
  • Refinish the antique dresser in the garage
  • Get rid of the miscellaneous cabinets from the garage
  • Replace window in art studio with a noise barrier window

I then made this my “Honey-Do” list and my sweetie and I have agreed to work on tackling each one of these items, one-at-a-time during our Saturdays, so that went on the chore chart calendar as well. I am not sure if we are going to spend time every Saturday doing these things, or every other Saturday. The good thing about this entire chore chart is that it is not set in stone, and we can change whatever we want!!

I have to admit that now the chore chart is ready to go, it is pretty large and a little daunting at first glance, but Jason and I did our list of chores for this evening, and it took us about 1/2 an hour, and the house already looks great!! WHEW! What a great feeling!!

Anyway, I am off to go do some arting homework, while my sweetie gets some game time in this evening, and then we are off for our evening walk!! Life really is good!!

Here is to a FABULOUS evening!! ;-)

Β If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!

Getting Over Overwhelm!

Good morning!
I know that I do not normally post in the morning, but I had some free time this morning, and decided to not procrastinate any longer! I know that I have been MIA for a few days, and I have to confess I have just really let myself get overwhelmed with my normal daily life.

Let me back up a little bit:

The other day when I was so worried that I was going to have our place flooded, I sat at work with that thought in my head for almost 8 hours. Over and over, I kept making a mental note of what things I HAD to have saved from the first floor of the house. What both surprised, and disturbed me to know is that there isn’t much that I care about losing down here. Besides my sweetie and my two dogs, I have a chest that belonged to my grandpa – he was an artist, and it is where he kept his art pens, that I would want saved, and the other thing would be my books that live downstairs. Not all of those, but a few that I consider “friends”, I would feel sick if I lost those too.

What does that mean in the big scheme of things???

Well, what kept going through my mind as I was thinking of these “HAD TO HAVE” items, is that maybe I have surrounded myself with things that I thought were bringing me happiness, when in reality, they might just be taking up space in both my home and in my life. I don’t want things that just take up space, I want things that add joy and value to my life. Even in saying that I know that things will never really do that, only people and experiences will bring me joy and value, but I live here. This is the place that should rise up to meet me when I get home. I started to wonder if that was what was making me feel run down and overwhelmed in my life.

I literally spent all weekend wallowing about this, and pining for the life I might have been if I would have not been focusing on unimportant “things” (yes, it was a very deep weekend for me!)Β  This morning I woke up and decided I was done wallowing. Today is that day that I start taking some kind of action to clean it all out, clear it all out, and decide what I am going to surround myself with from now on. No more unconscious living for me, thank you very much.

So, this morning as I sit in my living room, writing all of this down, I am surrounded by all of our Christmas containers, both old and new. I am working on getting all of the Christmas decorations cleaned out and re-organized into new, un-mangled bins/drawersΒ  so that I can help make Christmas decorating more fun, less chore. It may take me all week to get this all put away, but as in all things baby steps, baby steps.

In the meantime, I have also created a daily chore list for my sweetie and I, so we can get make the cleaning of this place a little more manageable as well. No ladies, chore charts are not just for your children any longer!! πŸ˜‰ Before I zip off to work this morning, I just thought I would share this new chore chart with you!! πŸ˜‰

Daily:

  • Make the bed
  • Cycle the dishes through the dishwasher
  • Wipe down stove top, counters, and microwave, if needed
  • Take the garbage out, if needed
  • Wipe down the dining room table
  • Straighten the sofa
  • Clean the dog’s water bowl, if needed
  • Fill the dog’s water bowl
  • Pack lunches
  • Empty lunch bags as soon as get home so it is ready for next days’ lunch
  • Cycle laundry, if needed
  • Remove garbage from car if needed
  • 15 minutes picking up after ourselves before heading up to bed

Whew!! between the two of us, we should be able to manage that pretty well!! and I bet it will make a nice difference on how well this place looks. I will keep you posted!!! πŸ˜‰

Have a FABULOUS day! :-)

A Whirlwind of Cleaning!

Good evening!

In preparation of New Years, and my goal to have the house spotless before the big sparkly ball drops at midnight – oh, wait…that didn’t sound right! Anyway, I told Jason about my clean house/New Years ideas, and surprisingly, he jumped right on the bandwagon and has been helping me clean ALL DAY!! Matter of fact, we have been cleaning like crazy fools!!! We have purged miscellaneous belongings, sorted, stacked, fluffed, buffed, fixed broken furniture, glued things back together that should have been glued back together eons ago, scrubbed bathroom mildew, swept and vacuumed floors, made beds, etc. etc. etc.

I would love to tell you that we are done and ready for the new year, but in all honesty that was only the upstairs! WHEW!!! When I think about it too much, I just get really overwhelmed and I want to throw my hands up and quit, but no! Baby steps, baby steps!! I just have to remember how much we have gotten accomplished just today!! WHOO! HOO!! πŸ˜‰ Just our bedroom alone looks like it has almost doubled in size! WHO KNEW????

Anyway, I am very happy about the progress we have made today, and am not going to dwell on how much more needs to get done, but most of all I am SO THANKFUL that I do not have to do it all on my own!!! I am also hopeful that Jason and I will get done early enough tomorrow that we will be able to spend time out having fun, and ready to ring in the New Year!!!

I will make sure to keep you posted!! πŸ˜‰

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

Thinking About New Years!

Good evening!

I have been doing a lot of thinking about the New Year. You know, a clean slate, a fresh new start, new beginnings. One of the things that I have been mulling over is the Chinese New Year tradition of thoroughly cleaning the house from top to bottom to sweep out any ill fortune and make way for any blessings that are going to be coming our way! Doesn’t that just sound amazing?? We can really use some good fortune right now. So, what does all this mean? Well, it means that I am going to have some serious cleaning to do over the next couple of days! I am seriously determined to get this place ready for the n New Year!!!

What about you? Do you have anything you want to do to get ready for the New Year? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

 

 

A Sunday of Nesting!

Good morning!

Today is looking to be a very busy, but a very good day!

I have already warned my sweetie that I am in a serious nesting kind of mood today! I already done a little reading this morning, gotten the laundry started, and I have a pot of homemade chili simmering away for a late lunch of chili with cornbread muffins. I have a few other chores I would like to get done today, and am hoping to have our place cleaned from top to bottom before the work week officially gets underway!

I am planning on finishing a scarf I am crocheting, and would like to get started on a new art piece up in my art studio sometime this afternoon, and I think it would be lovely to take a nice long walk in the rain with my sweetie this afternoon! πŸ˜‰

I will make sure to keep you posted!! πŸ˜‰

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

A Night of Frantic Cleaning!

Good evening!

Well, all of my house cleaning procrastination is now catching up to me and trying to kick my booty!! My dad and his wife, Trudi are coming up for the weekend, and they will be here tomorrow! After telling myself I would get started on the art studio every day this week, I am FINALLY cleaning like a fiend!! I really want to make sure that they a nice comfortable place to sleep!! πŸ˜‰ As you may remember, our guest room was previously converted to an art studio quite some time ago, and I had told myself that I would make sure that I always have enough for a queen sized air mattress on the floor for guests – not the best accommodations, but waaaay better than sleeping on the floor! Anyway, it became VERY apparent that I had forgotten about my deal with myself about keeping room for a bed, because not only is my art studio, and art studio, but it, unfortunately, became a catch all for miscellaneous blankets, magazines, empty boxes – you know, a typical junk-room!!

SAD!

Anyway, I am making amazing headway, and I am happy to announce that dad and Trudi will have a nice place to sleep!!

Whew!! πŸ˜‰

Now, that just makes me have to wonder, what the heck are we going to do this weekend??

Hmmm…

Saturday Market? Maybe!

Go the movies? Possibly!

Spend a day at the coast? That could be fun!

We are going to a church band concert on Saturday evening, so that will be something fun!

In addition to that, I am sure that between 4 grown adults, we can figure SOMETHING out!! πŸ˜‰ I will try to remember to take a ton of pictures, and share them with you all weekend!! πŸ˜‰

Anyway, I have GOT TO GET BACK TO WORK!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

PS. Watching the new tele show called “Whitney” and I have to tell you I’m LOOOOOVING IT!!! I’m just sayin’!!!Β  πŸ˜‰

Sunday Evening Update!

Good evening!

What a lovely day today was here in rainy Oregon! I just LOVE the rain! I love that it is cool, wet, and that a really good rainy day makes you want to stay inside all snuggled up reading a good book! Today, I did just that, amongst other things!!

The book I read today was the Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder! I have the whole set, and I actually had just gotten to reading them today. This first book was such an enchanting peek into Laura Ingalls Wilder’s pioneer life as a child living in the woods in Wisconsin in the late 1800s. One of the things I really loved about reading this story is that they tell you how they did a lot of things that our modern culture really take for granted such as churning butter, making maple syrup, homemade cheese, how to make homemade bullets, and the dangers of living out in the wild, and off of the land.

TheΒ  Little House in the Big Woods is a great story, about love, hope, family, and all of the exciting adventures that Laura Ingalls and her family has growing up together, and it is quite a fun read – especially for a rainy day! It ALMOST makes me wish I could live the way that her family did…

ALMOST!!! πŸ˜‰

Ok, maybe for a weekend!! πŸ˜‰

Anyway, on this fabulously rainy day, I have also helped get some of the house chores done – you know the typical cleaning, that you have no problem helping everyone and their mother do, but you would rather chew off your own arm instead of doing it at your house – that is what we did today!! Laundry, dishes, vacuuming, making the bed, etc, etc, etc!! πŸ˜‰ I have also spent a fair amount of time crocheting some more on my sweetie’s blanket!! I had discovered that I had made a mistake somewhere and not wanting to just ignore it, I ended up having to pull out 10 complete rows, which if you know anything about granny squares, that is A LOT!! To put it into perspective, when I had first discovered my mistake the blanket covered me from chin to toe, and after pulling out the 10 rows, it is once again a small lap blanket!! DARN!! But, all is good – I am glad I pulled it out, I want to be really proud of this blanket, and make it something for my sweetie that I know I did the VERY BEST that I could on it for him. He is TOTALLY worth it!!

As I get back to doing some more crocheting before bed…

Have a FABULOUS evening! πŸ˜‰

Getting Down & Dirty!

Good evening!

I am spending the evening in my art studio tonight. I would love to tell you that I am on a creativity roll and am creating like a fiend, but my confession is that I am actually still just cleaning up from our vacation! When we got home from our first half of our time off, I did the totally bad thing and just dumped everything off in this room and just closed the door!! I know, I am just so embarrased!! πŸ˜‰

Oh, man!! When I see these pics – yes, this is my “Art studio”, I just get overwhelmed and am not sure where to start!

However, I am very determined to get it cleaned up so that I can get some really “arting” going on!! πŸ˜‰

I am also wanting to get it cleaned up because, GULP, I am wanting to watch some tele tonight! I don’t know about any of you, but the tv show, Two and a Half Men, has been one of the only televisions shows that my hubby and I watch regularly, and we are kind of excited to see how the show will look and feel with Charlie Sheen out and Ashton Kutcher in. I know, it is not really deep, and not really terribly important, but there you go!

Before I leave this evening – to get productive, I just wanted to let you know that work was really cool today, and I was very glad to get back to it!! I didn’t realize I had really missed Chris and Julie!! AKA my peeps!!! πŸ˜‰ Anyway, it was good to get back to work and to feel like a contributing member of a team again!! Not to say that I am not looking forward to my next vacation, whenever that is!!! I’m just sayin’!!! HAHAHA!!

Anyway, wish me luck!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! πŸ˜‰