Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Day Three - Progress Report

I must be slacking off or something.  I only made the boys work for a couple of hours.  However, in that time we gave their room a thorough cleaning.

*  Changed the sheets
*  Pulled tubs out from under the beds and got all the dust elephants.  (You may have dust bunnies, but ours are elephants.)
*  Sorted through all the clothes in their dressers.  How do they grow so fast???
*  Collected two or three bags of clothes for consignment and Goodwill.
*  Tidied their closet (which wasn't bad at all).
*  Sorted desk drawers, and
*  Cleaned off the tops of their dressers.

Yesterday my dad came by and hauled away the futon/couch from the family room.  Kerry tried to give it to some friends that are getting married next month, but they wisely declined (I was SO EMBARRASSED!)  It's disgusting.  We bought it shortly after Wyatt was born, making it sixteen years old.  At one point I bought a new cover, but you just can't clean the futon itself.  And with three boys... well, I'll leave it to your imagination, but there have been things worse than milk spilled on that futon.  And you can't blame the bunnies for all of it, either.  Gross.  It's had a good, long run and now it's GONE.

As I was finishing sorting clothes with Gunnar (always last, since he gets the hand-me-downs) Tate was chomping at the bit for the next job, so I sent him down to the family room.

And, WAH-WAH (or voila, if you're French)... he had it practically finished before I got there.  He'd knocked two items off the list already.

*  Pick up the clutter
*  Vacuum 

I organized the other boys to
*  Vacuum around the edges with the attachment
*  Get all the Legos into their bins
*  Get the winter coats from the hooks in the mudroom and hang them in the closet.  (We don't have a coat closet, so we use the family room closet.)

Then we moved on to the living room and dining room (which is really one big room).  I had thought about moving the furniture, but settled for having them
*  Move and replace furniture as they vacuumed, and
*  Collect any "decor" items to the dining room, for me to put away / redistribute.   Because, yes, it was way past time for the Valentine things to go away.  (And you thought I was on top of things... only some things!)

And then I cut them loose, and did the dusting and what we'll loosely call "decorating" myself.

Last night when Gunnar and I dropped the boys at CAP, we stopped and rented a movie on the way home.  He hit the jackpot when he discovered our little neighborhood store had Wreck-It Ralph, and he and I enjoyed watching it together.  Since we had it until six, he talked the other boys into watching it with him this morning.  And - if you're wondering - they all liked it.  Not so much that we need to buy a copy, but it was fun.  I'm not sure I would've approved when the boys were younger, though - lots of cartoon violence and potty humor.  (If you want a real review, you can look HERE.)

And now they're hanging out with a friend from CAP for the afternoon, so...

back to my own chores.

5 comments:

melanie said...

This is more like a daily 'daybook' really. Just as interesting to read. And amazing. You and your men are just an amazing team.
When I look at our house, I just have to sing 'Too Much Stuff' {to the tune of 'Three Blind Mice'} -- We are working at it this week, but there are many many layers to peel from this onion!

Felicity said...

Kids grow way tooooo fast!! I got rid of two HUGE bags of outgrown clothes from Ben's cupboard yesterday. I think he's been playing in fertilizer behind my back!

Anonymous said...

Check you out! All getting stuff done by DOING stuff! ;)

Congratulations. You're putting me to shame, but not for long. I've got a list in the works! :)

The McGowans said...

Inspirational that you used your vacation for getting your house in order. After a busy year of schooling, I am noticing the places in my house that need some loving and was planning on waiting until summer to attack them. I may just decide not to wait. I could tackle them earlier. . . We could take a 3 day staycation and clean closets and sort clothes. Thanks for the encouragement!

from a housekeeping and administratively-challenged wife and mom

Martita

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Hi Martita :D

Oh boy, it's taken a looong time to get to this point - where the boys are old/mature enough to be really helpful, and it's a good place to be :D
Julie