spick and span

first off, hurray to me for posting three days in row!!! hip hip hurray! hip hip hooray! hahaha

now to the topic of the day...

today is memorial day. as i had no real plans and the weather is less than grand, i planned on spending the day in my pajamas while watching movies. i did accomplish as much. still in my pjs? check. watched tons of ridiculously bad movies? check. (side note: i do recommend seeing a nice little ditty called "lies and alibis". it does have rebecca romijn in it, but more importantly it has a great plot and interesting lead male character that compelled me to recommend it.)

but more importantly i cleaned! don't get me wrong, i do clean fairly regularly. an apartment with four residents isn't always the cleanest of places. and i'm under the impression that i'm the only one that cleans. anyways... since i was sitting around and no one was home i decided now was as good of a time as ever to attempt a belated spring cleaning. my mother raised me well. on a bi-annual full house clean-up. a period of time, twice a year, when the carpets were cleaned, the closets were emptied, and goodwill got a large donation. i try to do a similar thing about twice a year. college decreed that it was the beginning of school in the fall and the end of school in the spring. move-in day and move-out day. awww... those were the days.

lately it hasn't been so easy. i've lived in three apartments in a year and a half. so i guess i did a fair amount of "spring cleaning" every time i moved from one place to another. i've lived in the current locale for almost a year and no such cleaning has been attempted. when even the slightest cleaning has occurred, mess is created just hours later. (i'd say minutes but that might be exaggerating.) i'd blame living with male roommates, but i know that my brother is a bit of a clean freak and my father though messy keeps things pretty clean.

back to the cleaning. i've only accomplished a small part of it, but i feel like i got so much more done. i've finished off my room, which entailed: laundry, retacking of my wall tapestry, dusting, sewing of buttons and such, and a goodwill donation. next came my closet: reorganizing of the shoes, ditto of the clothes, a good sweeping, and a relocation of my hamper actually into the closet. whew! i'm rather pooped. mostly from standing on a wobbly bookshelf with a staple gun retacking the tapestry. i'm still shocked i survived.

tomorrow will be a little more safe. there are the two bathrooms to be cleaned. and i might just leave the kitchen and living room for the female roommate. she's having a party this weekend, and i'd rather not be worked up about how her guests are ruining the perfect cleanliness of the space.

what i really wanted to mention was the book that i've found to help me in all matters concerning the home. it's called "home comforts: the art and science of keeping house" by cheryl mendelson. it is the most comprehensive cleaning and maintenance manual for your home. i've actually read a good part of it, but it can also be used as more of a reference manual. i love it so much i plan on buying one for every person i know starting out on their own or getting that first home. i hope that you check it out and use it in your own home.