Carpet Cleaning

At the end of the year I always like to do a deep cleaning of our house.  Since there are only a few days left until the new year, I shooed hubby out the door (he was more than happy to go play poker while I cleaned) then went to work vacuuming then shampooing all of the carpet in the house (two floors worth!).  Now I have backed myself into the kitchen and need to sit here until the carpet dries!

When we first moved in we bought a basic carpet shampooer (it looks like a vacuum with reservoirs for clean and dirty water) and I think it only cost around $80.  This has been a great investment as I clean all of the carpet about twice a year so no need to hire the job done (most of our neighbors do this--a van pulls up, they pull out some huge hoses, then go to work shampooing) or rent a shampooer (who knows where those brushes have been).  It takes a few hours of work but the finished product is well worth it and by now we have paid off the cost of the shampooer several times over!

The Great Garage Clean Out

Our garage ends up as the catch-all for all of the stuff we don't want, empty boxes, new purchases, stuff to give away, etc.  Once a year we take a day to clean out and reorganize the garage in order to keep the junk level under control (and ensure that we can still fit the car in there!).

It's a cooperative effort.  I would like to get rid of nearly everything while hubby still has boxes of VCR tapes and a VCR...which I'm pretty sure he will never ever use but he still wants to keep this stuff...smh.  After several hours of work we were able to: pack up and send one big box of stuff to the Philippines, fill half the van with stuff we then donated to the Goodwill, throw away a bunch of empty boxes and junk we no longer need and isn't worth donating, mail a big box of stuff to the grandkids in Florida, and tidy up and organize the stuff we do want to keep.

If we would have had a lot of big valuable stuff we didn't want we may have held a garage sale or tried to sell it via Craigslist but that wasn't the case.  Anyway, we now have a neat and tidy garage and some of the kids will get a nice surprise in the mail and I am happy to put this project behind us until next year!

My Busy (Home-keeping) Day

About once a month I like to do a deep cleaning of my home.  I tell hubby to go play poker at the casino so I can have the house to myself and set to work.  My "to do" list includes:

• Wash the bedding (everything including the mattress pad, sheets, and blanket.  I wash the comforter every six months or so).
• Scrub toilets, bath tubs, and sinks.
• Taking out all the trash. 
• Clean out my closet (and got rid of things I don't wear).
• Wash dishes and clean all counters.
• Clean out the refrigerator.
• Clean and organize the pantry.
• Restocked and organized the bathroom cabinets.
• Vacuum and mop all of the floors.
• Changed the furnace filters.
• Weeded the yard.
• Organized and backed up my computer files.
• Reorganized some of the kitchen cabinets.
• Got a load of things ready to donate to the Goodwill.

Whew!  Now I'm going to have some green tea ice cream and relax!