Deep cleaning ~ Day 3

Yup, you've got it. My trusty assistants Audrey and Lauren and I continued cleaning day 3 and accomplished a lot in the almost 24 accumulative hours we worked:

• They completely cleaned ALL the windows and screens, inside and out. Can I just say that I LOVE clean windows? I showed them how to do it and they just took over. I LOVE that!
• cleaned the family room inside and out. Also reorganized the food storage room and the toy room under the stairs. Nice!
• we cleaned my bedroom and Andy's bedroom. I told A & L it was a good thing that they were there or I would probably start crying when we cleaned Andy's stuff. I've avoided his room. Their presence forced me to hold it together. Something about seeing all his pictures and handling his clothes, seeing his snow board and basketball stuff, smelling his Acqua de Gio cologne... man oh man, I miss that kid.
• we set up the queen mattress in his room since we got a new mattress in our room. Nice for him when he gets home and nice for visitors to have a bigger bed to sleep in.
• thoroughly cleaned our bathroom, bathroom closet and clothes closet. De junked like crazy.
• cleaned the office and sewing room. This little office has become the holding bin for stuff we haven't had time to deal with but didn't want to throw away. It was about knee deep. Yeah, I know. Seriously, we have too much stuff!!! We dragged it all into the family to clean and now Rick and I have to go through piles and boxes and GET RID of a bunch of it.
• I've already made one trip to Deseret Industries. More to come. Also, a trip to the dump planned for Saturday.
• Can I just say that it does feel GOOD! We enjoyed lunch at Rumbi Grill (I love that place) and then at the end of the day we went swimming to celebrate being done with the work.

Stay tuned, a few more pictures to come tomorrow.

Deep cleaning ~ Day 2

I took a couple of days off work to get the deep cleaning done because let's face it...it wouldn't have been accomplished otherwise. There just aren't enough hours in the day. Here is a picture of my two trusty assistants. I couldn't have done it without them. The best money I've spent recently since I don't have my own kids at home anymore to do slave labor to earn their room and board (I'm kidding... sort of.) Our kids have very fond memories of doing the annual deep cleaning as soon as school got out. Work now, play later kids! They were actually very good sports and they learned how to clean a house. I do wonder if any of them do an annual deep cleaning in their own homes???
Anyway, Audrey and Lauren were great little workers. I'd recommend them to anyone! They did whatever I asked them to do and they didn't whine and complain even once. We had lunch at Panda Express just for fun.

Here's what we accomplished:

• Jordan, Claire and Dave's bedrooms cleaned - under beds (yes, even under Dave's bed!), emptied closets, drawers, dejunked, wiped out and reorganized
• cleaned windows, blinds and curtains
• washed all bedding
• wiped baseboards and dusted
• washed light fixtures
• Two bathrooms - scrubbed showers and tub, washed shower curtains
• cleaned all drawers, under the sink, mirros and light fixtures
• scrubbed the sink, toilet and floor
• washed rugs and cleaned all garbage cans
• Organized the pantry - took everything out, wiped down, reorganized, dejunked (I can actually find things now)
• Living Room - wiped baseboards, dusted everything, rearranged
• vacuumed all furniture and organized magazine racks, CD stacks & piano music
• cleaned light fixtures
• cleaned blinds
• washed hall walls, baseboards and heater vents, banister and stairs

Here is a little sneak peek at our efforts that took 21 man hours between the three of us:

Breaking news

Swine flu has hit the MTC. (check out the article in the DNews.) Yikes! We're headed in on Tuesday for the general authority devotional and again on Wednesday to orient new missionaries coming into our advanced Spanish speaking branch of missionaries arriving from all over the place, possibly from Mexico. I wonder if we'll have to wear breathing masks like these.
Kinda funny. Kinda not.
Church service can sometimes be a hazardous to your health as evidenced by this article about Elder Russell M. Nelson and his wife along with other mission leaders being attacked and robbed in Mozambique over the weekend. Sad. Sad. Sad. Luckily no one was seriously injured.

Spring has sprung

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Deep cleaning ~ Day 1

• clean out all cupboards, wipe inside and out, reorganize & dejunk, clean all small appliances, polish cupboards
  

• clean all large appliances (dishwasher, microwave, range, stove and fridge), wish inside and out, move fridge out and clean coil and underneath

• wash all chairs, bar stools and table, polish with wood polish

• wash walls, base boards, ceiling

• clean all light fixtures inside and out
• clean computer desk
• strip and wax floor (we really need a new floor!)
  

• wash rugs and garbage can

• wash valances and blinds and clean windows

THE KITCHEN BEFORE

THE KITCHEN AFTER

Man hours it took me and my trusty assistant to accomplish this work - at least 16!