That’s How We Roll: Day 19

I understand why people hire maids. It’s not because they are lazy. That is far from it. {I’m sure in most cases, at least!} It’s because it is so stinkin hard to stay on top of things. I straighten the house up every single morning.

I wake up.

Eat breakfast.

Make beds. {4 of them}

Pick up bedrooms. {3 of them}

Wash breakfast dishes.

Put breakfast dishes away.

Get the kids dressed. {4 of them!}

Pick up dirty clothes and put them in the hamper.

Straighten up the bathroom.

Wash off the table.

Pick up toys.

Clean dry cereal up off the floor. {Don’t your kids eat cereal while watching tv in the morning? No?}

Vacuum the bedrooms. And rugs.

Sweep the floor.

And, if I’m lucky, I can get this all done before 9:30am. That gives me an hour to get my shower and get ready before I have to make lunch for Parker and do the routine to get him on the school bus.

Fun, right?

I enjoy it. Really, I do.

But that is just the normal things that need to be done. That’s the “straightening up” that happens almost constantly in our 1100 sq foot house with 4 kids running around. If and when I do get to the deep cleaning, the house doesn’t get straightened, and it looks like a bomb exploded in here before the day is through.

But today? I got a few things checked off my spring cleaning list. Just a few.

I finger swiped the blinds {big mistake} and couldn’t take the pollen/dirt on it any more.

I love springtime. Really, I do. I love being able to open my windows after a long winter. I love airing out the house. I love fresh air and birds singing and sunshine. What I don’t like is the pollen. It’s gross. It’s green. And it covers everything. For months. {Okay, maybe just a month! But I’m over it already!} My blinds were suffering.

I’ve tried a few different ways of cleaning the blinds, but this is by far the easiest.

Clorox whips. They rock. Check out that pile. Guess who showed that pollen who was boss! {And that was from only ONE set of blinds! Holy moly they were filthy!

 

After I got the back room clean, I decided to tackle my bedroom. Since we have a lack of storage space, and bookshelves, under our bed is our makeshift storage area for books. Not quite ideal. But it works for the most part. At one time they were all stacked nice and neat under there. And then I cleaned out our linen closet decided to store linens that we don’t use under our bed. And then Ben put his hunting clothes under our bed. And then some of my crafting things ended up under our bed. And don’t forget my clarinet, and a fan, and the Gospel Art Picture Kit {I’ve been looking for that}. Among a million and one other things.

So what did I do? I organized. And purged. And got rid of an entire bag of stuff to be donated. And a bag of stuff to trash/recycle. And a pile of books to return to their owners.

 

I can honestly say I am exhausted. But I feel a teeny tiny bit better. It feels nice when everything is “surface clean.” Which is what my house is on a daily basis.

But it feels even better when the “hidden” places are cleaned and organized!

Oh, how I wish I had a maid. I would have her clean my blinds. And scrub my toilet. And baseboards. And windows. {I did the ones in our bedroom today! SO.MUCH.BETTER!}

But, alas. I’ll do it myself. Slowly. Because with 4 kids that’s how I roll!