The Great Clean-out of 2018!!!
I’m not quite sure what got into me. Maybe it was being sick for over a month and doing nothing but laying in bed or feeling like the house was full of sickness and I needed to scrub it all out?
It all started out innocent enough. I just wanted to clean and dust the tops of the kitchen cabinets, the hutch and the entertainment center. That quickly snowballed into much much more!!! LOL!!!
The cleaning bug spread to every square inch of the house, inside and out and top to bottom!!!
Every closet, bedroom, room, nook & cranny! Nothing went untouched!
Floors and carpets were also cleaned like never before! I bought a carpet shampooer and it was the best $200 I ever spent! We’ve lived in this house for 16.5 years and we’ve only had the carpets shampooed once. Gross I know. The one time we hired Stanley Steamer to come in and they did such a terrible job I didn’t think we’d ever get the carpets cleaned if the so called “pros” couldn’t do it.
Well let me tell you…..the little shampooer we bought from Walmart did the job and did it SO WELL!!! Jared was astonished and shocked! He didn’t think it was going to work as well as it did!
Before: bottom pic…After: top pic
It’s a little disgusting and satisfying to see all that dirt and grime come out in the tank! LOL!
Our bedroom was the worst. Years of walking over the same area got it pretty black and we thought for sure was ruined forever. It took 3 tries but the final result on the bottom right speaks volumes! So happy!!!
The linen closet has always been a booby trap. I wish I would have gotten a before pic of this. You couldn’t even see inside.. there was a bookshelf piled high with board games, blankets, pillows, sheets, and sleeping bags were smashed in there waiting to attack the next victim who opened the door. It was a mess!
We sorted out the games and got them organized and stored in different cabinets. We donated the ones the kids didn’t like to play anymore as well as the sheets, comforters, etc we didn’t use. The bookshelf was donated to a friend and now I open the door and it looks so pretty! I love it!
These couches have been with us for over 12 years. They are sagging, ripping, and the ottoman is broken. They still are usable but they were in need of a deep cleaning and some TLC.
I needed a change. I wanted something clean and fresh and I felt it was time. We don’t buy new things very often. We are a use it up and wear it out family.
We donated the couches to 2 families we know. They split the set up and they love them! The carpet was also given to a older woman in our ward. It felt good to help others out!
I found a REALLY nice inexpensive rug at Walmart of all places. I’d looked online for over a week and I found this one and fell in love with it!
Just ignore the couch marks on the wall…LOL!
The new couches arrived and they are beautiful!!! We got them at Mega Furniture. They are custom made by a local LDS owned family business.
They are so much more firm than the old ones were which is good for my old back/hips! Alayna loves them and so does Sammy!
He was a little leery at first. The old couch cushions were attached and he perched himself up there like a watch dog. It took him a few days to not be scared he’d fall in the crack of the pillows!
After we went through the entire house it was time to tackle the garage! Oh the enormity of that project!!!!!
Again, I regret not taking a before pic. You wouldn’t have believed it! We sorted and organized and hung tools and purged like nobody’s business! Cleaning became my full time job! Every day I tackled something! LOL!
Isn’t it awesome!?!
We filled up our recycle and black garbage bins for over a month. We couldn’t get the trash picked up as fast as we were filling it! We also took 3 van loads FULL to the brim to Goodwill for donation.
I gave away the couches, living room rug, my old flute, a giant doll house, tons of toys, a bookshelf, a TV with a built in DVD player, and Alayna’s white bed along with a bunch of other random things to people in the ward. Which is really nice feeling knowing the people personally you are helping.
My friend asked me if I was pregnant and nesting? I told her to wash her mouth out with soap! Hahaha!!!!!
When I told Walker about it he said he thinks I’m “empty nesting”. Haha! He just might be right! He’s not going to be with us too much longer!
Our front porch has a wooden and iron bench that I’ve decided is in desperate need of sanding and refinishing. Jared took it apart before I got a pic of that too…darn it! 😛 So I decided to gamble with some poor unsuspecting flowers and planted them and put them in it’s place for now. I tend to kill all plants. But they sure look pretty for now! 😀 I hope they last at least a couple of weeks. Haha! Poor things!
I can’t even put into words how satisfied and free I feel having my house deep cleaned, organized, and clutter free! I feel like I’ve moved into a brand new home! Typical Americans move every 5-10 years or so. We are plant your roots kind of family and haven’t had the opportunity to go through our home and really purge and clean like you do when you move.
I’m pretty good about going through our things about twice a year but I’ve never taken the cleaning to this level before. It was truly The Great Clean-out!!!! It’s been a lot of hard work but the fruits of our labor are so sweet!!!! <3
