Spring Cleaning

It's time.

I've been so envious of Lorijo's Spring Cleaning Cure that I have to do my own, though less thorough and significantly condensed.

My mom will be staying here, as I've mentioned, while we're away for 2 1/2 weeks. She cleans houses for a living and has volunteered to clean mine while we're gone. She works hard, my mom. I want our house to be a true sanctuary and rest place for her. (My sister who is much younger than I, and though an adult, still lives at home with the baby she had in December. It's not a terribly restful place.)

I found my plan of attack--where else--at the Martha Stewart website. I've decided to take a room by room approach, starting with the top down and working from the visible to the invisible--from the stuff in the open, to the stuff in the closets (though last night's project seems to belie that, it doesn't really, because I was moving stuff that was sitting out, homeless, into the closet. That's different that just "cleaning the closet").

It can't be as thorough as I'd like--no pulling books off the shelves and dusting, no vacuuming of the refrigerator coils, I don't have time for that. I guess it's really more of a "thorough house cleaning" than a true "spring cleaning."

Room by room:
1. Dust from top to bottom
2. Wash walls and doors (where noticeably dirty), switch plates, windows.
3. Wash/vacuum sills and screens, wash/vacuum upholstery, bedding
4. Wash curtains (if machine washable)
5. Tidy and clear surfaces.
6. Wash lamps, vacuum lampshades
7. Wash floors and baseboards.

I have already done the downstairs bathroom and the dining room (with the exception of the windows). Today I hope to get our bedroom done (I washed the bedding and flipped the mattress yesterday).

Unfortunately, I have to be in a school gymnasium with lots of noisy children and sweating bodies for five hours today. My son has his Tae-Kwon Do testing today from 10-3.