There was WHAT on my kitchen appliances??

Let me tell you a little secret about me: I have never ever been good at cleaning, or keeping my house clean.

Like seriously, if you've ever come to my house and it's appeared clean, its usually because I spent the last 15 minutes before you've come over making things appear clean.  If you had looked a little closer though, you would have noticed that it truly was just appearance.

My mom used to go CRAZY over how dirty my room was.  She finally figured out that at some point it would drive me crazy too, and I would clean it.  That's pretty much how our house has gone too...it'll be dirty until it drives me crazy.  I used to use the excuse that I worked 40 hours a week, and therefore didn't have time to really clean.

Well, a couple weeks ago, I realized that excuse was going away (read about that here).  I also realized that one of my responsibilities as a mom is going to be to help our kiddos learn about keeping a clean house and why it's so important: keeping germs that will get a sick to a minimum, and allowing the spirit to be in our home more easily (Helaman 4:24, D&C 42:41, and D&C 88:124...I think these apply both literally and spiritually).

I remembered a "cleaning plan" that my mom tried when we were younger, and I decided that this would be what I would implement to try and keep myself on track.

I have a little 3x5 notecard organizer with five different sections.  Each section has notecards with chores listed that need to be done at different times.  For example, the first section has things that need to be done daily, the next bi-weekly, the next weekly, etc.  Each notecard has two chores listed that need to be done for that time frame.  For example, in my daily section I have wipe down the counters, dishes, and pick up the floors.  In my bi-weekly I have vacuum, and sweep the kitchen.  Then I can write the date that I did that chore in a list, so I can keep track of when it was done last, so I can make sure it's being done often enough.  That way I can't say "oh I've cleaned the bathroom recently" (because I hate cleaning the bathroom, and will avoid doing it at all costs).

When I had made cards for every chore I could think of, I realized it wasn't very many, so I started Googling cleaning lists.  I found a whole bunch of chores that I wouldn't have ever thought of doing, but that would be good to do in the "2 week" and "Monthly" time frames.  One of those things was cleaning the outside of the appliances in the kitchen (I know, duh, but I didn't even think of it).

Well, today I cleaned the outside of all the appliances in our kitchen, and all I can say is I am grateful I did that Google search.  Our appliances looked "clean" but once I started actually looking at them, and looking at the cracks and crevices, I realized they were SO GROSS!!!!!  Haha.  So now, we have beautiful looking appliances too, and I've learned my lesson about cleaning in spots you may not think of.

So, moral of the story?  Its ok if you suck at cleaning, too (because you're so not alone) and just because things look clean doesn't mean they actually are.  (Also, doing a Google search about a project may not be a bad idea....)

Spring cleaning...in the winter...Nesting?

About a year and three months ago, we moved from our first little apartment into the apartment that we're in now.  Our first apartment was about 450 square feet, so when we moved into a 900 square foot apartment, we were THRILLED with how much room we had!  When we moved in, it felt like we were never going to have enough stuff to fill up the apartment.

Boy was I wrong.

A couple weeks ago I looked around and realized, "Holy crap...we have to fit another person in here in four months.  He may be little, but he's sure going to come with a lot of STUFF!  I have no idea what we're going to do!"

To chalk it up to that realization, or to blame "nesting," I'm not really sure, but what I do know is that this week I have been on a cleaning adventure.  And it hasn't been just the normal "vacuum the living room" or "dust the speakers."  No.  I'm talking like "completely cleaning off the half wall between our kitchen that's become so cluttered with random papers and stuff that doesn't belong to us" kind of cleaning.  The deep, decluttering kind of cleaning.  I finally looked at all of the papers we've been holding onto (for what reason, I'm not quite sure) and either put them in the "trash" pile or the "shred" pile.  I've got piles going of random stuff of other people's that we've collected throughout the last year that I'm finally going to give back.

I have to say though, getting through all the clutter makes me kind of happy.  It makes me kind of happy to look over at the table that our birds sit on, and realize that I not only organized it, but finally cleaned everything off, got rid of whatever had collected there that we don't need, and vacuumed up all the bird feathers and seed that had fallen all over the place. (You would not believe the amount of feathers that two little parakeets lose, and the amount of seed that they manage to get in the smallest of cracks).

Hopefully over the next four months we can keep it up so that when little man comes, he gets to come home to a nice, organized, clean home :)

What are some of your favorite cleaning and organizing tips?