Spring Project Update

The kids get out of school in two weeks for summer vacation. Let that sink in! That means that, while it's yet to be "spring" weather in these parts for a continuous 24 hour period, my children will be done with school and looking for me to entertain them every day.


In reality, this means that in between attending spring concerts, fieldtrips, honors nights, etc., I have to really kick into gear if I hope to finish my spring chore list before the natives are released to my care. Yikes!

Thankfully, I started off a few weeks ago in high gear and then the reality of the month of May and all its obligations threw me off track. But here's the list of what I've accomplished thus far...

Cleaned out Bonus Room. First, I had to pick a day that was somewhat warm, but not too warm so that I'd neither freeze or burn up. I've cleaned out all the stuff that we no longer used/needed and am down now to about 300 books that my honey and I need to go through. Between kids books, hardback novels, bible study tools and various non fiction books, it will be a task, but I'm thinking we can tackle them one box at a time.

There is so much open space in the bonus room now that I'm thinking Mr. C could hang out in there as a man cave. Of course, there are only about 30 days a year that it's the "perfect" weather to hang in the room!

Downstairs Kitchen Drawers: This was my first accomplishment. Quick and Rewards were evident right away. Repurposed a huge cabinet that was wasted space, cleaned out all the "junk," and now I just need to go over with the "dishwasher emptier" where things go so it stays that way.

Basement Cleanup: We had a lot of empty boxes. On Monday, round two of the recycling will go to the curb (my husband didn't want to overload our trashman) and since it's an every other week pickup, I've had to be patient. I've organized our off season coats, hats and accessories as well as camping gear, sports equipment and all that extra stuff in the corner. My husband now has few boxes of his "stuff" he needs to sort through.

I also went through the Kids Playroom and have organized the board games in an IKEA bookshelf, given away a few toys that were no longer being used as they were too "babyish," and now have a better sense of what to do in decorating this space.

Girls Storage Boxes: Miss M had a lot of clothing. There were bags of outgrown clothes in the bonus room, piles in her closet, and bin after bin in the basement. I went through it all and I was brutally honest if I thought Miss A would ever wear the stuff. I kept the timeless pieces, the dresses and skirts, the nice tops, sweaters, and pants. I tossed the target t-shirts and old navy tops that were on their third child (love the cousins, but some of the tops were almost 10 years old.) I know that I'll be adding to Miss A's shirt collection, but that will be cheap and she'll love the shopping.

This is the only spring cleaning I actually took pictures off thus far. All the bins are now labeled, clothes still in good shape that I tossed have been delivered to the Goodwill, and Miss A's current summer collection is in her closet.

Kids' Closets: Cleaned out, donated unused, organized and inventoried for spring/summer needs. I even cleaned out their drawers and figured out who the pack rats were in our family.

Plans for the next few weeks: I really want to paint the Kitchen Table, Chairs, and Stools. It's either been too damp, too cool or I've been too chicken. I'll go with the first two! I also want to clean out the toy closet and look at Miss A's collection of toys, barbies, polly pockets and things small (she's the hoarder of the bunch) and see what we can live without. I think we might even finish the family room painting project too, but I don't want to get carried away!

Lots done, Lots left to do. Love cleaning out the clutter.