Graham Crackers and Dryer Sheets

Well, back over Labor Day weekend I cleaned out the laundry room and little alcove that is like a pantry/dog feeding area.  I just never took the time to sit down and write about it.  These rooms together aren't very much space - probably 6 x 12 feet combined, but there are lots of cabinets and shelves and counters and stuff. Many of which haven't seen the light of day in awhile.

Dryer before...

I did the Laundry room first.  Just putting away all the things hanging on the rack where we hang shirts and "no dryer" things to dry made the room seem bigger.  But, it also meant I had to iron like 7 shirts and a pair of linen pants.  I busted out the ironing board, turned on the US Open, and got to it.  

...and after!

Then there was the washer and dryer under the hanging bar.  There were a few things that had been sitting and waiting for the dry cleaner (for like 8 months), and a lot of gunk. The combination of laundry soap film and clothes lint that had settled on those appliances was gross, and took more than a quick swipe with a rag to clean up.  In my wildest room-cleaning dreams, using spray cleaner on the inside of my washing machine had never come to mind.  But, here I was, elbows deep, getting the inside of my washer clean.  Made me wonder how clean my clothes were getting.  So, I ran a load with all the rags I used to clean it, and a bit of bleach to make sure the last of it was washed down the drain.

the clean inside of my washer

The opposing wall of the laundry room is a counter top.  In the 7 years in this house, I can't remember ever actually doing anything laundry-related there.  But, after I sorted the rags (yes, I actually had old scraps of things that were too useless to even be rags), put the few old clothes into the garage sale bin, hand washed the lollipop out of the halloween costume from '09, and gave the whole space a good wipe down, it looked laundry-folding ready.  And, guess what - that counter top is white!  I had forgotten that.

the "rag" drawer

Underneath the counter were some under-utilized cabinets and a drawer.  After de-junking the drawer, I could put the rags in there.  Handy, but out of sight - I like it.  And, I made sense of the cleaning products and other things that had been lurking on the cabinet shelves.  I took that are used outside, like bug spray and WD-40 (all 3 cans!) out to the garage.  This made room for storage of garbage bags and big dog towels and stuff that usually were perched on top of the dog food bins in the room next door.  A quick sweep of the floor, and the emptying of the trash full of years worth of stray dryer sheets, and this room was ready for a back page feature in "Laundry Rooms Today".  

On to the pantry.  Really the only food storage that takes place in this room is on an old kitchen hutch that got put in here when we had not other place to put it when we moved in.  It has a weird cornucopia of things stored on it, stuff from my desktop at an old job, lots of snack foods and cereal and my bank checks on the lowest shelf.  'Cause who doesn't want to write a check while downing a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch?   

For the cleaning here, I started by putting all the office stuff in my new "office supplies" section of the toy room closet, and the bigger files in the file cabinet.  Then, I threw away any expired food.  Apparently, I must buy graham crackers to make s'mores every time we go on vacation and then bring the rest of the box home, as I had like 5 boxes of stale graham crackers hogging shelf space.   By the time I had those things done, there was an entire empty shelf.  I am sure this will come in handy when I am cleaning out the kitchen.

In the cabinets at the bottom of this furniture, there were some old lunch bags and coolers and the plastic cups that had been retired from the kitchen but that had too many good memories to toss.  I just left the cups.  But, I washed out the coolers so they are ready for a picnic at a moment's notice.  Lots of shelf space down there too.  

All that was left was a generous wash down of the shelves and the dog food tubs and I'd be done.  Oh, yeah, wait -  and the kitchen trash can.  That can was gross.  Dusty and with little scraps of wrappers that stuck in the crevices.  The fact that it's called "stainless steel" is completely a mis-nomer, as this thing had splatter marks all over it.  So, I dragged it outside with a bucket of Pinesol and some rubber gloves, and got to work.  I scrubbed it inside and out; lid, liner, can, all of it.  Then, I left it in the sun to dry.  Much better.  And, now it looks right at home in my cleaned up room.

The big score of this round of cleaning - a vintage Neiman Marcus black patten leather purse with the tags still on it that I found with the coolers.  Must have come from Kevin's grandma's house when she passed away.  I like it though, and may just use it as my purse this fall.

Week 9: Getting Back on Track

The "clean the house" train is definitely loosing steam. Between our great trip in August, getting kids back to school, doing too much "back to school" volunteering, and you know - actual work, it has been hard to motivate myself to finish. Especially when there is still a measurable amount of work left.

And, there have been other hurdles. First off, I tried to consolidate the garage sale stuff that has been piling up. There is just a lot of it, and it is making it hard to get around in our bedroom. Kevin kindly bought boxes and brought even more home from work. But, those were all filled and there was still a bit left over. At least in boxes it could be stacked vertically and out of the way a bit more. To get this task done took a few hours. That's a few hours that may otherwise have been spent working toward cleaning a room. A necessary part, I know, but just something I hadn't accounted for.

Hurdle number 2: The vacuum gave up the ghost. Probably from cardiac arrest after all the paces I have put it through as of late. It was accustomed to a leisurely life in the closet, and this whole regular use schedule (in very dirty places no less) made it decide to revolt. It has now moved from the closet to the newly re-stacked garage sale pile. Right next to the tile cleaner I found in the front closet. Our garage sale attendees are going to think I have a thing against clean floors. Sadly, I think they would be right. But, in the short term, this vacuum disruption has meant that not only can I keep the uncluttered floors fresh, but also that I have to spend even more of my 11rooms11weeks time hunting for the best deal on a new vacuum. Ugh. But, dirt waits for no woman, and I need to get on with it.

This week, I knew the kids were going to be spending Saturday through Monday with the in-laws, so I could use the Labor Day holiday to clean in peace. I will try not to cry over the fact that a free weekend of kid watching will be used for housecleaning rather than a trip to, well, I don't know: anywhere! Back in May, I may have been plotting a garage sale by now, but I will take what I can get. I decided that the little corner of our house that contains the laundry room and pantry would be the target. Initially, I had these lumped into the kitchen, as they aren't really that big. But, upon further investigation - the kitchen may take a couple weeks all on its own, so these guys get to have a week (or in this case weekend) to themselves. And, I wasn't really sure what was in the cabinets in either room, so it might be best to give it my full attention - ok, well, at least the attention I am not paying to sleeping in a bit, catching some US Open tennis, and maybe helping Kevin to celebrate a birthday. As I said, the clean-train is loosing steam...