Cleaning Up & Cleaning Out

Cleaning Up: The Great Flood of 2008. We still haven't ascertained the cause of the problem but the bottom line was the potty runneth over. And over. When I discovered the mess, there was an inch & 1/2 of standing water covering my hard wood floor all the way out under the dining room table! Flooded underneath the wood bathroom vanity clear through to Aynsley's room and through the wall to Tristan's room. Wet carpet. Wet wood. Not good. Rod spent days sucking up water and running fans. The end result: The wood is slightly rippled, there is a faint smell of wet dog on one side of the house and things like closet doors still hang out in my living room area.



I do not have one single picture of any of this because frankly, at the time, I did not see anything amusing, humorous, or interesting about the situation that would have sparked my brain to grab my camera. It was not a pleasant few days.



Cleaning Out: At the time the flood happened, I was in the midst of major cleaning out mode. I'll back up-- the cleaning spree started because I kept noticing things around the house that we hadn't used in months if not years. i.e. changing table in Tristan's room and a baby monitor stashed in his closet. So I decided to sort through the kids' rooms, removing all baby paraphernalia (we're done with diapers so no need to keep diaper baskets in their rooms, ya know) I rearranged their rooms and thus began Fall Cleaning at our house.

All that sorting and organizing spread to our bedroom and before I knew it, I had purchased paint to re-do our bedroom. Now, I probably took it to an unnecessary level but I was on a roll. I was inspired to re-decorate the bedroom and painting is one way to dang sure clean. Maybe when I'm finished, I'll post some "before and after" bedroom pictures.

Had I known that 1/2 our house would be flooded just days later, I probably wouldn't have started the cleaning spree just yet. "Stuff everywhere" is the only way to describe our house in the last 10 days. It may take us a while to get things back together.

But after wiping down baseboards, cleaning out cabinets, and organizing linen closets, several things occurred to me. Some of those thoughts I'll share with you....

1) Why and how did I accumulate 16 bottles of varying shades of pale pink nail polish. Apparently, I like that color.

2) Why and how do I have 12 unopened bottles of baby powder? Can anyone suggest a good use for baby powder w/o babies? I hate to throw it away.

3) How is it that spider webs can be in so many places in your house and you never even know they're there? I have been amazed at the quantity & size of spiderwebs throughout my house! And where are the spiders that made these monster webs? In my house?

4) How do our children hide Cheerios in every conceivable nook & cranny of our home? They're everywhere!

5) Why do I need 10 plain white tablecloths in varying shape and size. I can't tell you the last time I used a WHITE tablecloth but they are taking up an entire shelf of my linen closet. I never knew it but now I see that I have a bit of a tablecloth fetish too.



I won't continue-I could write an entire post about my closet (how many pairs of black heels is adequate?) but I'll just leave you with a challenge...you blog readers should clean out this Fall too. Don't wait till Spring. I'll bet you'll be surprised at what you find. You should all keep a running tally of the bizarre things you find and report back. Then we should have one giant garage sale. That would generate enough $ in our kitty to buy more pink nail polish. :-)