Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Spring Cleaning Days 2-5

My spring cleaning this year has to be sprinkled through the month of March. I can only work on tasks on my days off. I have sixteen of them this month. I am reserving four of them to prepare and leave for a week long family vacation at the end of the month. So, I have twelve days altogether. Here's the cleaning schedule.

On Day 1, I worked on the upright freezer.

On Day 2, I cleaned the refrigerator. It took me two and a half hours--and took over the entire kitchen. It was a nightmare.

before

the tower of leftovers

after

On Day 3, I cleaned the kitchen ceiling (long overdue and well worth the hour and a bit it took), the top of the fridge, the door, and the trim around the doors (3) and windows (2). It was immensely gratifying, but exhausting--and dishearteningly unphotogenic.


before

after


On Day 4, I had planned to clean out the insides of my upper cupboards. I did two shelves.
I also had an epiphany about time.

before

I had budgeted a certain amount of time to get the tasks done I wanted to do for Day 3. It took me a lot longer than the time I'd allotted and I was upset and disappointed in myself. But through some back and forth with Aby at Simplify 101 in her time management class which I'm taking, I realised that I needed to get done what I could in the time I had. That is, if I put two hours aside--and all I managed to get done was two shelves, well, then, fine and dandy. The fact that I didn't get it all done should not rob me of a sense of accomplishment for what did get done. whew.

during 

after

On Day 5, I was pleasantly surprised to find I was able to complete cleaning both lower cabinets in an hour. That's what I hope all Spring Cleaning tasks could be like: a deep clean, a quick declutter and everything ship shape in no time.

 this is the extent of the lower cabinets in my kitchen

 before: pots, pans, mixing bowls, and a container for onions

 after

before: extra spices, food, weigh scale

after

How is your spring cleaning coming along?

Spring itself, or, rather, should I say, the melting season has arrived!

look! a bare patch of concrete!

2 comments :

onshore said...

Well done! I kind of forgot that I meant to do a spring clean.
I have not cleaned the cupboards after you held the cure ummm... some years ago :/
Cleaning those takes surprisingly big chunk of time.

Alana in Canada said...

oops. Well, you have been a bit busy growing your family!

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