Bins and Purge

Both my husbands and I’s parents live in different states and we have gotten used to living far from extended family, so we have had to create our own little family traditions. For the past two years, my family has made it a new Mother’s Day tradition to go on a hike, go canoeing, or anything that entails being outside. This year we planned on continuing that tradition by going canoeing for the second year in a row but the weather didn’t cooperate and Mother’s Day was so early this year it would have been a little too cold, so we planned on waiting to celebrate until later this month. In the meantime, my Mother’s Day wish was to have every part of my house (at least on the inside) clean at the same time for at least 48 hours.

If you have read my first blog, "Dirty Barbies", you know this wish started weeks ago when I had the sudden urge to clean and purge my master bedroom closet. My closet was actually pretty neat and organized, but the amount of unused clothes gathering dust in there was getting a bit pathetic. I had clothes in there that I couldn’t fit into after having two of my kids over ten years ago. I had clothes in there from when I used to go clubbing on a regular basis, many of which fit my seven year old daughter well enough for her to actually use. I had moved many of these unused clothes from California to Ohio, from Ohio to Alaska, and then from Alaska to Indiana. So it was time for me to not only get rid of clothing items that no longer fit, it was also time for me to get rid of things that a forty year old woman wouldn’t wear even if they DID fit! I'm Cleaning Out My Closet

Not only did I purge a ton of unusable clothing from my closet, but also from my drawers, my husband’s drawers, my children’s drawers, the downstairs coat closet, and the bench where I keep all of our winter gear. Then I cleaned all the drawers and pulled the drawers out and cleaned behind the drawers and you would be shocked at the amount of dust, dirt and lost items that were behind the drawers. I actually found a poster from 1986, an invitation to a wedding for my parents from who knows when, Nerf gun bullets, dead insects, old underwear, and a slew of other items that had been in "The Land of the Lost" for years!

I also purged about twenty-five pairs of shoes. Many of them were handed down to me from my Mom, the queen of shopping and purging. She and I are the same shoe size and so when its time for her to purge the insane amount of shoes she owns, its then time for her to bring them to me and for me to try them all on and try to decide on the spot if I really need them or will really use them or not. Unfortunately, I often decide that, “Yes!” I absolutely do need 15 pairs of flip-flops in different colors and with different adornments on them, only for them to sit in my closet for three years and never be used because I usually wear the same two pair of flip flops 8 months of the year. But what if I go on a Caribbean vacation and need a lime green pair of flip- flops with tiny beaded tassels on them?

 

Then came my seven year old daughter’s room. It “only” took me six hours to purge and clean her room. I went through every single drawer, bin and surface of her room. People love to give Lily things: family, friends, neighbors, teachers, Santa, probably because she is so sweet and cute, but she is also a hoarder. Her Dad and her have made it a tradition to play the crane machine every time we go see a movie at the theater, so she has a ridiculous amount of crap quality movie themed stuffed animals as well. I ended up throwing away a wastebasket full of stuff and taking two laundry baskets full of toys out to the garage for our upcoming garage sale, none of which Lily knows of course. All of this has to be done while she is at school and anything to be sold must be hidden in boxes and trash bags while we prepare for the garage sale. We also plan to have the garage sale while she is at school and whatever doesn’t get sold will be donated promptly before she gets home! I’ve had to do this with my two older boys as well, so I have it down to an art form.

At this point, my boys don’t have nearly as much stuff as Lily does and their rooms mostly just need to be dusted, vacuumed, and deodorized. However, Charlie’s likes to hoard empty boxes, broken battery operated toy pieces, and plastic guns, knives and grenades. And Sammy hoards broken pieces of things he actually breaks on purpose to use for parts for his many creations, monster masks, and currently, Navy Seal Brochures. All of these items were sorted through and cleaned while they were at school, taking only a few hours compared to Lily’s room though. 

Somewhere in my race to make my dream of the entire house being clean all at once for Mother’s Day, I had lost my will to clean and purge any longer and my husband and kids cleaned the rest of the downstairs for me on Mother’s Day itself. I gave instructions to vacuum everything: the walls, the ceiling, the furniture and, of course, the floor. The kids needed to take all their randomly strewn stuff upstairs to their rooms first, and actually put the stuff away, in the correct places, and then, the cleaning began. However many hours later, the house was clean enough for the final touch, carpet shampooing.

It is the Monday after Mother’s Day and lets just say that 99% of the inside of the house is clean, all at once. The shampooing spilled over into today, no pun intended but, in the immortal words of that tiny lady from Poltergeist, “This house is clean.” It smells good, you can see the tops of the tables, the bathrooms don’t smell like urine, and everything is somewhere it can be easily found. I don’t know how many days passed before the poltergeist reared its ugly head again in the movie, but all I ask is for 48 hours before it comes back.