Cleaning Spree

As you've probably heard, DC was hit with some pretty serious snow last night. It wasn't as epic as the Dec '09 or Feb '10 snowfall, but it was enough for a snow day. I would have loved to stay in bed and watch Intervention or The First 48 all day, but I got my booty out of bed and went on a cleaning spree. I despise cleaning, so our house was in need of some TLC.

I started by dusting our living and dining rooms. I don't know what it is about old houses (ours was built in 1890), but they collect dust like CRAZY. I should do some serious dusting every day, but I just don't. I have no good excuse other than it is too much dusting to keep up with. I then vacuumed our bedroom, which basically entails sucking up all the dust bunnies that have accumulated between furniture and in the corners. I love having hardwood floors, but again...the dust! Okay, enough about that.

I also stripped the beds and started a marathon laundry session. I am even washing the down comforters today. Do you wash and dry your comforters at home? Last year I tried taking them to the dry cleaner, but they wanted $129 for two queen comforters. Umm no. I put tennis balls in the dryer with each comforter and the feathers separate pretty well.

I then decided that it was time to organize the linen closet in our bathroom. I forgot to take a before picture, but believe me...it was in disarray. Here are some after shots:



The top shelf holds extra stuff that I've stocked up on, the second shelf holds our towels, the third shelf holds all our hair products and tools (and a few extra Clinique make-up items I wouldn't be able to see, and then would likely forget about, if they were on the top shelf), the fourth shelf holds bath and body products, face products, and dental hygiene items. The bottom has wire racks that hold a lot of miscellaneous stuff, and our old towels. I love being organized! (Interesting isn't it? I like being organized, but don't like cleaning. Hmm.)

Speaking of towels, how do my towels get bleached? I don't use bleach!

I did use proactiv for a couple months and know that it can stain towels, but this is the guest towel for the half bath. It did not come into contact with proactiv! Does this happen to other people? We go through towels so quickly because they get stained and I don't want to use them anymore. I would love some tips on prevention!

Now...as you can probably tell, my cleaning issue is that I never attack a whole room. I dusted the living room, but didn't vacuum. Same for the dining room. I vacuumed our bedroom, but didn't dust. I organized the bathroom, but didn't clean it. I didn't even start tackling the guest bedroom (besides the bedding) or the kitchen. I don't know why I do this. Maybe this is why I hate cleaning so much. It's like it is never ending because I basically still have to clean the whole house, even though I did finish a few tasks. It would be so much easier to just clean one room at a time. Maybe I will force myself to do that next time....