Spring Cleaning

I have a crew coming on Monday to paint the inside of my downstairs cupboards, so I am in the process of removing everything from them. That has meant several trips to get boxes and 3 days so far working most of the day packing. This house was built in 1956 and by the look of it inside the cupboards has never been painted before. I have been in this house for 5 years and since it is relatively old - by U.S. standards anyway - there is a lot to be done. I am working on it little by little. It's amazing how dirty things get. At this minute I am taking a break from cleaning out the broom closet and shortly will be vacuuming up the miniscule particles all over the floor.

Years ago it was the custom to 'spring clean' every year. It was also necessary to defrost the refrigerator periodically to deice it and that meant taking everything out and cleaning it at the same time. Now many people rarely clean their fridges, including some of the younger members of my family, and the result can be pretty appalling. Many older customs are sensible and although I make a point of cleaning my fridge every so often, after looking into my empty cupboards I think it would be sensible to revive spring cleaning too. I even found a deceased mouse in one cupboard, hidden in the back under some old paper bags (Wondered where that smell was coming from last year !!)

Whenever I am painting I have difficulty deciding on colors. Last year when I was painting a rental, I decided part way through that the kitchen color was wrong and had to redo it. Home Depot used to have a rather clever tool available where you could try different colors out on a computer, and I should probably invest in a program like that for my computer.

Whenever I am cleaning up I make solemn promises to myself that I will be much more organized in future. I moved into this house from a much larger one, which meant downsizing, and the garage is still crammed with things that I have to organize and decide which to keep and which to get rid of. Things have been complicated by the fact that several of my children and offspring have moved in and out in the interim. Each time that has meant rearranging and moving things about, and each time they leave I am left with unwanted items that I have to cope with. Then I had to put my elderly mother into a board and care home and that meant keeping many of her personal items, including a lot of very intersting books, and adding them to the ever increasing pile.

The worst thing about not being organized is being unable to find an item that you need. Often there isn't either the time or energy to look for it, which means buying another. In this present cleaning endeavor I have just discovered several items that I had to duplicate. What a waste of money and more clutter !!

Back to packing before it gets too hot. We seem to be heading into a rather humid day.