30 days of spring cleaning

Spring is just around the corner and the days are noticeably longer. 

I've noticed because it's light when Paul gets home from work now. Just a couple of weeks ago I was still turning on the outside lights for him to walk safely down our stairs.

I took this photo of Paul arriving home from work tonight - plenty of light.

L greeting Daddy at the gate.

The downside is that all this extra light is making me notice the mess and grime that's built up over winter.

Surface cleans aren't cutting the mustard. It's time to deep clean the house, decluttering and reorganising while I'm at it.

I figure, if I do a little bit of spring cleaning every day for 30 days, the house should be pretty sparkly by the end of it. My inspiration for this is 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home by Money Saving Mom.

I'm not following Money Saving Mom's list exactly, but I'm using it as a jumping off point for my own list, which I started a couple of days ago.

Day 1: Clean and sort the top two cutlery draws

This involved taking everything out, wiping out the draws, washing the cutlery tray in the top draw and putting everything back in a more organised manner.

To be honest, I can't remember the last time I did this job, so there were quite a few crumbs in there.

Ah, sparkly white again. 

Chaos in drawer two!

Slightly less chaotic.

Day 2: Spring clean the girls' bedroom

I managed to put both girls down for a simultaneous nap in my bed this afternoon. I've never tried putting them both in my bed, but I guess they were pretty tired because it worked and meant I was able to work uninterrupted on their bedroom for a couple of hours.

I started with S's side of the room, pulling out her cot and vacuuming and scrubbing the floor under it. She drinks her bottles in bed so there were lots of yucky milk splashes that needed dealing to. 

S's floor scrubbed clean.

I also scrubbed the walls around S's cot, and the cot itself, before polishing her cot and chest of drawers with linseed oil.

Feeling quite proud of myself by this point. Self high five!

Next I tackled the floor under L's bed.

Boy, what a treasure trove under there. Missing toys and hair accessories galore, amidst all the dust. It felt good to vacuum and scrub that floor.

And since the girls were still sleeping, I thought I may as well wash L's window while I was there.

L's bed pulled out so I could clean under it.

Next I reorganised and cleaned the change table, vacuumed the floor under it and washed the window it usually sits under.  

S had woken up by this point so I quickly called it a day on the spring cleaning, but kept on wandering into the room all afternoon to admire how good it looked.

Next on my 30 days of spring cleaning to-do list is the floor under my bed. The place where dust bunnies love to frolic amongst lost socks and Duplo blocks.

Has anyone else got the spring cleaning bug? Please share your stories in the comments below and motivate me towards that elusive goal of a clean and organised home.