Clean Sweep
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m totally addicted to those TV shows on HGTV and TLC like Trading Spaces, Design on a Dime, What Not to Wear, While You Were Out, Divine Design, and Clean Sweep. There are even more shows than that, but they’re all pretty much variations on a theme.
Anyway, since Meghan made me get cable (I survived quite well through college and three years post-college without cable, thank you very much), I can’t stop watching these shows. And watching them motivates me to work on my own home. Well, at least it motivates me to think about working on my own home.
Anyway, I’ve started one project for my bedroom: a folding screen for the corner, to hide the litter box (no, it’s not that bad–most of the time I can’t smell it at all). I think I’ll post more about that later, including pictures.
I’ve also determined that it is past time to really get my bedroom into a presentable state. Right now I have unused (pastel-colored) hand weights and rarely-used DDR pads on the floor, clothes piled all over the dresser and an old popcorn tin (recieved from a company trying to recruit me out of college), and a stack of mirrors and pictures that have yet to be hung. Not to mention a tiny closet overflowing with clothes.
I thought I had done a pretty good job of getting rid of old clothes when I moved ten months ago, but it wasn’t good enough. Going through my closet yesterday I found plenty of items that I know I will never ever wear again. Time to purge. How much space and how many hangers that frees up! To free up yet more space (and get some of my clothes off of that popcorn tin), I bought two of these pants hangers from Target. Why didn’t I get these sooner? They’re great! And I’ve found out that two aren’t enough, so I’m going back tonight to get more.
I also need to tackle the problem of the bags of shoes at the bottom of my closet. I have a rack for frequently used shoes by my front door, but that still leaves all the dress shoes and out-of-season shoes scrunched in a shopping bag. There are probably some of those I can stand to get rid of too, which will help. As for storing the rest, what I’d really like is a set of cubbyholes on wheels, so I can shove them to the back (actually side) of the closet, yet still have them relatively easy to retrieve when needed. I don’t know if they make such a thing. Hmm, another project, perhaps?
May 25th, 2004 at 10:17 am
I finally got the cleaning bug yesterday, as we are leaving on vacation tonight. I spent 7 hours cleaning the entire house, which is the first time it’s been cleaned in, well, a very long time. I vacuumed every room (who invented a word with two u’s in a row, anyway?), shook out the rugs, vacuumed the dust off the baseboards and the door panels, cleaned the kitchen, dusted everything, and threw out an entire garbage container (the big one the city gives you) of stuff I will never ever need again. And did 8 months worth of filing that had been building up in piles on the floor.
And I finally set up my office with my laptop and new desk.
It will be good to come home to a clean house.
(btw, I was hoping you’d weigh in on the classical concert applause issue
May 25th, 2004 at 6:22 pm
It is always good to come home to a clean house–and it sounds like you did a thorough job of it!
Don’t you just hate how dust accumulates so quickly, and on such random surfaces? I mean, cleaning the baseboards and door panels is not the first thing you’d think of doing, after all, but yet it still needs doing.
It’s even worse when you have pet hair–we have whole warrens of dust bunnies in my house!
Sorry I hadn’t commented on your applause post–I’m kind of torn on the issue so wasn’t sure what to write. I’ll try to stop by and comment.
May 27th, 2004 at 12:31 pm
My wife is seriously into the clean / remodel / paint bug now.
Of course, she’s 7.5 months pregnant now, I think alot of it is preparing for the new one.