Week 1: Kid Bathroom and Hall Closet

So the first week of summer is upon the Mantooths. Swim team practice is kicking into full gear. Swim lessons (to make sure we're ready for swim team) are wrapping up, and best of all, the summer sitter starts this week. As for the cleaning, I figured that it was best to start with something small. The kid's bathroom fit the bill: not too big, and lots of things that could use a little help.

First off, it is disgusting in there. Between really long girl hair, a boy who makes nightly visits to pee without waking up, and a counter with 2 sinks full of kid toothpaste spit, it is just kinda gross. But, whenever I do get that stuff cleaned up, it still looks messy. That leads to reason 2: The messy ambiance is because of the mountain of bath toys that have accumulated for the past 8 years, 5 years worth of clippies and hair bands, and any number of other random things the kids drag in there. Not to mention the house's linen closet is in there. And clean linens don't get put away so much as shoved into the front with a prayer that they won't all tumble out the next time someone goes looking for a washcloth.

As for the hall closet - it is right outside the bathroom, and it has to be done sometime, so why not now? This is the closet that holds winter coats, other winter accessories like hats and scarves, and the vacuum. Not too bad, right? Except for that we used this closet as one of our "hiding places" for toys and other domestic flotsam when we had our sunroom torn down and rebuilt a couple years ago. That's right - a couple. Still a few bags of stuff in there from 2 years ago. It is tempting to blindly give them to good will, but I am not sure what's in there, and would be bummed if I later remembered that was the box containing my kid's baby blankets or some such memory.

So, in the scope of my house, not too much floor space for this week's work. But, there are 4 cabinets, 4 drawers, 3 shelves, a medicine cabinet, a hanging shelf unit, a clothes bar, and a bathtub that need attention. Should be a good warm up exercise for what's to come...