Spring Cleaning Kick-Off

This weekend has basically jump-started spring cleaning around here. My first project was Garrett's room because it was desperately needing a good cleaning so I figured it was the best place to start as any.

First I have to say that I do have Garrett pick up in his room every other day or so. He does a very typical kid job of cleaning up, but at least it's bearable. Every other month or so, I have to get in there with him and really clean up to get the clutter back down to a minimum so he can slowly mess it up again. Such is the life of a mom. I do want him to enjoy his room and play with his toys and I always let him keep out any big projects or "scenes" he has created, but the clutter of toys and things strewn about gets to me after awhile. Not to mention, he just doesn't want to play in his room when it's a big mess.

We cleaned his closet (minus going through all of his clothes. Most of them still fit him pretty well and we aren't entrenched enough into spring-like weather for me to begin moving around winter clothes. In Texas, summer clothes stay accessible year round, so we're good for now.) We also cleaned out his train table, which is basically a catch-all/junk drawer nowadays. We sorted through all of his toy bins and his bookshelf. We filled a trash bag full of broken toys or trash or papers with all of his drawings on them. (Yes, I would love to save every single piece of paper my child draws on, but it's really impractical. Just today we had to throw out at least 3 dozen pages of drawings.) I also completely removed every crayon and marker that had somehow made its way into his room. He's been having "accidents" with markers in his room. 2 different spots on his carpet along with some stray marks on his comforter. They are now all in a child safety-locked cabinet. I hate having to do that, but I also hate having to scrub marker out of the carpet too.

All that remains to take place is to vacuum and clean the window and blinds and my first room for annual spring cleaning is finished! Only 9 more rooms to go! (Assuming I'm dividing open areas of our house into rooms, along with counting bathrooms. In the ideal world, all of those places would receive a thorough cleaning, but in reality, it probably won't happen. I'll just dream about living in a house with all rooms being simultaneously clean...)