Cleaning and De-cluttering...

It's that time of year again.  The deep cleaning and de-cluttering time.  Not my favorite, that's for sure.  But it's got to be done.  With Big C coming home from college next weekend and bringing a friend (an International Student from Britian), I want the house to look it's best.

 So...yesterday I deep cleaned the kitchen.  By the time I was done, I had cleaned the stove, refrigerator, microwave, all the little appliances like the coffee pot and toaster, bleached the cabinet tops, wiped down the cabinets and the walls, and mopped really, really well.  I also cleaned out the pots and pans cabinet and the tupperware cabinet.  Those are always cluttered and a mess to get anything in or out of.

 This morning, after the visit to the beauty shop, I worked on Small T's bathroom upstairs.  Everything is cleaned up and bleached down now.  No nasty germs hanging out anywhere, that's for sure.

Small T abhors her 1970's era bathroom but honestly, retro is in these days so I've left it alone.

Now...I can't believe I'm going to share the following photos with you, but I'm doing it simply to shame me into cleaning the mess up.  You see...we're clutter hogs.  Yep.  We are.  These next four photos show what I'm getting ready to work on now.

 This is the shelf unit by the refrigerator and the hallway that leads to the bedrooms.  It always looks like this but after today...NO MORE.  I'm de-cluttering and throwing stuff away.  ASAP.

 This is the corner cabinet in the dining room and a pile of stuff that I swear needs to be left on the dining room table (which is really a lie I tell myself so I don't have to clean it up).

These next two photos are just horrible.  I'm ashamed.

 The right side of the fireplace.  Geez.  It's a catch all for everything we don't want to put away.

And the left side of the fireplace.  I will admit that it's almost all yarn stuff.  Totally my fault.

So...while the cleaning bug has reared it's ugly head, this is what will be keeping me busy today and tomorrow and probably a few more days as the fireplace area will be quite the project.