Getting Ready for a Little Spring Cleaning

The guest room in our last house--cleaned out and repainted--with lovely Miss Emma doing the modeling

It's nice to be back from my little self-imposed blogging vacation. Was I traveling? Was I sick? Nope, I was indulging in some lovely spring cleaning and it was taking up all of my time.

Now, I've moved enough times in my life to learn how to lighten the load--with every move, we end up with fewer books, fewer clothes, fewer knickknacks. However, there is always another drawer to straighten up, and another storage box to go through. My usual method of deep cleaning rooms is to empty them completely, paint them, and then only put back the most necessary items, while getting rid of the rest (see Spring Cleaning, My Way).

But I'm not really in the mood to paint the adobe house just yet. The walls were freshly painted by the sellers and I'm good with the way they look right now. So--it's time to try out another method.

A friend of mine mentioned that her son always watched an episode of Hoarders to inspire him to go out and clean his garage. That seemed like a good plan to me for preparing to deal with the guest room closet, and I recorded just one show for starters. One was enough. As a matter of fact, I had to keep pausing it to leap up and grab another pile of magazines to shove into the recycling container. I would highly recommend the Hoarders method to jump start your cleaning project.

If that doesn't get you going, read this sad story about a woman in Las Cruces who called for an ambulance and had to be removed through a window because the emergency crews couldn't maneuver their equipment through the rooms of the house. What was she hoarding? Rats! I'd hate to give it away.