Thoughts on cleaning.

So, as I have mentioned before, I'm working on "spring" cleaning my house. I have decided I need to rename it deep cleaning, as there is no way the whole house will get done anytime before July.

Last week I did the boys room and this week I'm working on Lucy's. I have learned two things in the course of doing these rooms:

1. My kids are DISGUSTING. (Actually, it would probably would be more accurate to just say that kids are disgusting.)

2. Never put kids beds directly against a wall.

Reid & Ross's beds are up against the wall -- not because I want them there, but simply because the room is not big enough to accommodate the furniture any other way. The walls bordering the beds were beyond gross. The scuff marks from toys (some accidental and some caused by the fact that they use the walls as a race track for their match box cards) were the least of my concerns. The yucky brown haze, chunks of nose glue and other unidentifiable, but dried, liquids were disturbing. The good news is that the walls looked almost new (if you can ignore the few chunks of wallboard that are actually missing) after a thorough washing. I suppose I should probably scrub them down more than once a year.

The crib was also beyond gross. I dust it weekly and wipe it down whenever I notice chunks. Well, I've obviously been missing something. When I took the bed apart to move the mattress down a few slots, I noticed dried, crusty spit up on the inside of the panels. And there was what looked like a lot of dried spit (not spit-up, though) on the top of the rails, which means that has to be left over from Ross, since Lucy can't pull herself up yet. So, now I need to add another task to my weekly list -- wash, don't dust, the crib. And I thought myself to be a good housekeeper...

And here is where you can all laugh at me. Let me preface what I'm about to tell you with this: I miss working. Don't get me wrong, I like being home and wouldn't have it any other way right now, but I do miss my professional life outside the home. While my degree is in accounting, I did a lot of database work at every one of my jobs.

So, when I got ready to start spring cleaning, I decided that I needed a way to keep track of what tasks needed done and when they had been completed. I don't want to forget to do anything and also want to know when a task is due to be completed. So, what does Michelle do? She starts a database. No, not just a spreadsheet, but an Access database with lots of complicated tables linked together to give a cleaning history, a way of tracking when items were due, a list of specific tasks to complete....you get the picture, right?

Okay, okay...I AM A DORK! I know it. After spending about an hour on this project, I realized that I was completely off my rocker. So, I scrapped it for a much simpler spreadsheet. And then I laughed at myself. Now it is your turn.