The Great Spring Clean - Part 1

The Great Spring Clean in time for our visitors next week started proper a week before they were due to arrive.  With an ironing basket that hadn't been touched for two weeks and in danger of falling over, I set about getting to the bottom of it.  The ironing was eventually put away (after spending 3 hours ironing, it usually takes me another day to get around to it) and a start made on tidying my daughters bedroom which was a pit.  Following on from this I started decluttering the dining room.  Here's what it looked like to begin with again.

 

 

 

Faced with this sort of task it can often be hard to know where to begin.  I started with clearing the wooden shelves you can see behind the bikes and finding an alternative place for everything or getting rid of some items.  The wicker basket was full of back copies of Vogue, which I decided to send to the charity shop and see if anyone might be interested in buying them.  The metal tin I found room for in my newly decluttered hall cupboard.  The other two shelves contained craft and sewing materials which I promptly relocated to a craft box situated under the chest of draws which got a good sort through too or to my sewing room as appropriate.  A small but significant start as this helped to motivate me to carry on to the next phase.

 

The next phase involved doing some work in the garden.  The following day (Saturday) it was lovely and sunny and was forecast to be 9 degrees centigrade, so I didn't want to miss an opportunity to get out there.  Although this might not seem relevant to spring cleaning the house, by clearing and finishing dog proofing the garden, we could then get the bikes outside and put some of the items from the dining room in the garden shed. Also, washing the garden pots and putting them away tidily meant we could create space for ourselves and our guests to sit out there when they come, should the weather be nice and would make it easier for me to reuse the pots for spring sowing.  The sunshine also meant that I could get some more washing on the line instead of drying it in the dining room.

 

Before we started parts of the garden looked like this.

 

 

The area under the trampoline was a particular mess.

 

 

 Pots everywhere waiting to be washed.

 

 

 



The bins were set out across the part of the garden to the side of the house to stop the dog going through to next door's as this part of the garden wasn't yet dog proofed. 

 

You can see the difference a day makes when all of us were on the job from these after photographs.

 

 

 

 

Pots cleaned and stored in the greenhouse.

 

 

Table clear and ready to sit around once chair covers replaced, area under trampoline cleared.

 

 

The part of the garden down the side of the house now properly dog proofed and bikes moved outside from the dining room clearing more space.

 

 

Potting table moved to just outside the back door for easier access and use.

 

 

My daughter very kindly helped me wash all of the plant pots which helped enormously.  We both now have very wrinkled hands, but after two years or more of not washing them they are now finally done and it is a fabulous feeling.  In addition, we've cleared all the rubbish that had lingered for months, put the bikes outside and I have washed the outside chair covers which had unfortunately been out all winter due to having nowhere inside to store them.  Finally, I managed to dry 3 loads of washing in the sunshine, saw my first bee of the year and my ironing pile is now back to square one, so I've come full circle, but with progress made.  A thoroughly satisfying couple of days' work.  Garden order now restored I can sit out there with a cup of tea and enjoy it again.