Ahead of the game!

Every year, late summer, when we get back from Cannon Beach, my mind shifts into high gear fall anticipation. I love summer, but I love fall too. I love the anticipation of a new school year. I love the school supply sales. (Yes, I already started buying, but that is another post.) One thing we do to get ready for the year is a MAJOR (and I mean REALLY major) house cleaning. I literally go room by room and clean everything!! Every drawer emptied and cleaned, every closet organized, every mini-blind dusted, every baseboard washed, every wall rubbed down, everything!!

A couple of days ago I got a little bee in my bonnet to clean out my "office" (read: junkroom that contains my abandoned scrapbooking supplies, homeschool materials, and anything else that has no immediate home.) This room is one that takes some considerable going through and I had the great idea, "What if I *start* with that room and get it done before I leave?" So, in a flurry of garbage bags (plural!!), wet and dry clothes, and, of course, Clorax wipes, I began. My accompaniment was The Lord of the Flies read by the author himself. He is a terrible reader. He has this disturbing little swallow. It is SO annoying. But even worse? He pauses after each chapter to add his own pompous comments about his writing. Again, another post.

Well, I finished and moved on to the school/playroom!! I enlisted the help of two willing servants. (They preferred that to math. Go figure!) They dusted the mini-blinds, baseboards, etc. Every Playmobile knight is in its place. Every lego is either vacuumed up or in its proper bin. The miscellaneous little junky toys that somehow accumulate even though we don't really ever get toys is in one of the aforementioned garbage bags.

Today, I tackled the laundry room. I even pulled out the washer and dryer to clean behind and under them. How can machines dedicated to cleaning things make such a mess? But, now, they are polished and shiny, ready to do battle with the next batch of laundry.

The week I had intended to do this was the third week of August, so I really feel like I am ahead of the game now. Somehow, once the ball gets rolling, I really enjoy the process. It feels so good to look at a room and know everything in it has been cleaned.

Now, if only it would stay this way!!