Cleaning up

This is not MY list – nor my photo. Thanks, Meagan!

As a child, I remember spring cleaning as a time when the house was “lightened up” for the sunnier, warmer days which were heading our way.  The heavy drapes were taken down and replaced by sheer organza, the flannels were traded for crisp cotton and the house was generally made to feel less cozy and more open.

My own spring cleaning rituals are a bit less structured than those with which I grew up.  I wash and rehang the same curtains, sometimes even running an iron over them if I wasn’t lucky enough to pull them out of the drier fast enough.  I might roll up the area rug in the living room and stash it away for the summer months and sometimes I even make the effort to rotate my favorite photos around the house for a new perspective.  It’s pretty damn basic, is what I’m saying.

Here are my accomplishments from last week:

• Wiped down the outside of the kitchen cabinets.  Well, just the base cabinets.  I never got around to the upper cabinets.

• Cleaned the oven, which means push that button on the digital panel and be left wondering which will happen first – will the cleaning cycle be done and finally unlock itself or will the area surrounding the range explode into flames because it really is that hot.

• Removed all the magnets and artwork from the front of the fridge and shined the stainless steel carefully returning nearly every item, but placing them in a different “spring” arrangement.

• Took my skis and boots from the basement steps and actually put them on that shelf in the back of the basement.  Boots even got returned to that clear plastic garbage bag.  Ready for next year!

• Placed Uggs in cloth bag and put them back in their box on a shelf in my closet.  Running shoes also all returned neatly to the shoe rack.

• Hand washed and dried all stemware from hanging glass rack.  Actually, I did this task a couple of weeks ago, but I consider it to have been a slightly premature act of spring cleaning.  Assuming you define “spring cleaning” as something you do only once a year or so.

• Raked my front yard twice and my backyard just about once.  Have yet to pick up the leave piles in the back but hope to take care of it tomorrow before it rains.

I can’t say I was the most productive person during spring break, but I did slightly more than nothing which puts me ahead of the game, right? What about you?  Did you clean up?