Spring Cleaning.

It finally stopped raining! In fact - it has been unseasonably warm and sunny. Adam is out of town this weekend (at a funeral - it's been a rough year) so I took the opportunity to do some spring cleaning and house maintenance. Here are my accomplishments - feel free to applaud - I'm pretty pleased with myself.

Biscuit enjoying the sunshine.

1. Washed Biscuit's bedding. Good lord that dog has a lot of designated places for sleeping! I washed the cover for his couch (also his special seat for the car so he can see out the window on long trips - it looks like this). I also washed his crate pad and his bed that he keeps in front of the radiator. Shhhh don't tell Biscuit but that bed is actually a cat bed.
2. Did all of our people laundry - including sheets and towels. 4 loads - done and done. 
3. Processed and bagged up an online return that has been sitting in the laundry room for weeks. That's $86 back in my pocket.
4. Put away all the shoes. Every last pair. This required getting rid of 4 pairs of shoes. Buh bye running shoes from three years ago.
5. Cleaned out the fridge. Then washed the five gross Tupperware containers with expired food in them. By the way - the Rubbermaid stain guard food storage containers are amazing. We have had the same set - with gray lids - for four or five years now and they hold their shape, never stain and never take on the odor of what you stored in it - regardless of how long you let it fester in the fridge.
6. Washed the garbage can - outside in the sun - with Biscuit. Obviously this turned into a water hose fight since Biscuit tries to bite at the nozzle whenever I use the hose.
7. repotted a plant.

My gorgeous braided trunk tree - before re-potting. Notice the bird in the back from a previous post?

8. Emptied, loaded, ran, and emptied again the dishwasher (I did have all those tupperware leftover containers from the fridge).
9. Swept and mopped the kitchen and bathroom.
10. Cleaned and organized the laundry/sun room. This included getting rid of (or hiding in the garage) a random assortment of games, old yoga mats, a vice, expired soda water and bloody mary mix, a dead plant, numerous empty cardboard boxes and on and on.
Ugh - this was the biggest and most time consuming project since this is the room we squirrel away purgatory items - all in neat stacks and such but still it is all crap. It is where everything we do not need but feel guilty throwing away goes to die. It is also the room where most people enter and exit our house so it is kind of embarrassing to have it be such a crap free-for-all space.

Look! A flat surface in the laundry room uncovered in crap. Such a beautiful site.

Here are a few examples of the treasures found during this flurry of weekend cleaning activities --
1. We had four board games we never even opened. Plus 6 decks of cards and 3 decks of Uno cards.
2. 4 of Biscuit's tennis balls under the laundry table.
3. An unopened pack of bobby pin also under the laundry table.
4. A parking ticket from November that I really hope one of us paid. 
5. 4 spray bottles of Method all-surface cleaner - all partially used.
6. Two dozen half full mini bottles of shampoo, conditioner, lotion etc. from fancy hotels. You would think we were running a hostel for dwarfs with the amount of these bottles we had on-hand. 
7. A box sent to us from Adam's parents at Christmas that we somehow never opened. It contained a Superman Snuggie for Adam, a festive Christmas print one for me and some sort of Christmas cat plush toy for Biscuit. Seriously.
8. A jump rope. Eh?
9. A Dora the Explorer kite and a container of bubbles. I'm hoping these were from my niece and not how Adam entertains himself when I am out of town.
10. We have three tool sets. None of which have a standard sized Philips head screwdriver in them. One did however have a Transformer arm in it. 


For your enjoyment I included some photos of the gorgeous spring time weather this weekend. I assume y'all will find these more entertaining that an interior shot of the dishwasher.

Cheers!
B.L.E.