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Posts Tagged ‘spring cleaning’

Busy B

Posted in Craft Business, tagged , , on April 10, 2017| 2 Comments »

At the Auntie B’s Wax World Headquarters springtime poses a bit of a dilemma.  On one hand I love to tackle the spring cleaning chores.  Deep cleaning.  Thorough cleaning.  The kind of cleaning that takes a few weeks to accomplish.  On the other hand a lot of my crafting projects clutter up the house.

Tidiness facilitates cleaning projects, crafting projects thwart tidiness.

I’m in a constant state of conflict trying deciding what should take priority.

For example, creating drink charms involves this…

…and this…

 

Mr. Henry Hedgehog likes to keep an eye on things.

Luckily the candle creations occur in Craftland, far away from the living spaces I want to deep clean.  Craftland never gets a deep clean, but while wax is cooling in the molds I try to straighten up the area and keep things organized.  Multi-tasking, man.

Creating, tidying and deep cleaning keeps me busy in the spring.  Also kind of makes me mental.  With my shoulder to the wheel those deep cleaning projects will be completed and I’ll feel so accomplished.  Or maybe, as is the case many years, the ammonia, rags and mops will become forgotten before I’ve finished spring cleaning the entire house and my attention will focus on bottle caps, fragrance oils and wicks.

Either way, everything will get done in time.  I hope.

 

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It’s Time

Posted in Everyday, tagged on April 3, 2017| 10 Comments »

Hello – it’s April!  Do you know what that means? Spring cleaning!

I know, the Spring Cleaning is a ritual that is pretty out of date and I don’t know of many people who engage in this utterly satisfying practice, but this year I’m going to hit it to the hilt.  I hope.

If you don’t participate in this yearly ritual, think again.  Murphy’s Oil Soap is a lovely fragrance to have hanging around your house and gets rid of all of those sticky wooden surfaces.  Hand rails, cupboards – they totally need a cleaning!

I have a plan this year, but it’s anyone’s guess if I complete it.  I started with my beloved East Wing room.  It’s not really a “wing,” but I’ve named all of the rooms in my house that that’s what “my” room is called.  I tackled the closet of the East Wing and this is what I’ve emptied out so far…

That’s not even all of it!  The closet is your standard-sized closet, plus a little extra but  nothing like a walk,in and this is what came out of it.  Ack!

Those file folders on the ride side of the photo?  Business records.  I spent over two hours going through those, getting rid of at least six years of paper.  Some of it went into the recycle bin, the majority of it went into a container saved to burn.  That’s right, burn.  And for anyone reading who cares, the burning materials are staple free.  Yes, head of the family cottage, there will be no staples in the burning barrel!  (You’re welcome, Dad.)

A few hours later everything was sorted and consolidated and organized and put back into the closet, or sent out for disposal.  It doesn’t take a huge amount of time to attack a spring cleaning project, and the reward is so fabulous.  You’ll feel like a hero.  You’ll feel like a super-hero.  You’ll feel like, dare I say, a god(dess)!

There are several more spring cleaning projects in store at the Auntie B’s Wax World Headquarters.  I realize my house cleaning practices aren’t very interesting to anyone other than me, but my pride necessitates a post to encourage domestic goddesses everywhere.  Clean up that wood work!  Vacuum that furniture!  Launder those window draperies!  Put on that first t-shirt of the year (in Minnesota at least), open the windows and let the fresh air in while you scrub away the dirt and grime of the previous year.

Oh sure, it’s all going to get dirty again because, well, you live in your house.  You fry food, you burn fires in the fireplace, you touch stuff.  That’s no reason to ignore the most satisfying cleaning experience of your life.

And plus, don’t forget to polish those windows, inside and out.  You won’t regret it.

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April

Posted in Everyday, tagged , , , , on April 9, 2014| 11 Comments »

It’s April, and do you know what that means?

April Fools Day?

Yes, but that’s not quite what I was thinking

I know!  April showers!  They bring May flowers, you know.

Well, according to legend that is true.  However, this April brough us SNOW showers so far, so I’m not sure how soon the May flowers will be following.

No, the answer I’m looking for is – April marks the beginning of spring cleaning!

No way!  I hate housework!

Well, you might be interested to know that spring cleaning doesn’t require the effort it did in the olden days.  Today we have furnace filters and we don’t burn kerosene lanterns so the need to scrub soot off of our walls and ceilings is practically unnecessary.  But the smell of Murphy’s Oil Soap, ammonia and bleach can fill the house with a special feeling of clean, especially when you can open the windows and let the spring air mingle with the aromas of freshly scrubbed floors and scoured sinks.

This past weekend I engaged in the first session of spring cleaning at the Auntie B’s Wax World Headquarters.  It entailed a lot of furniture moving, baseboard dusting and vacuuming, furniture vacuuming, and scrubbing down and rearranging the laundry area.

Then today I got home from work and went wild.  Wild, I say!  I had no intention of doing housework when I came home from the day job, but guess what?  I decided to clean out one of the kitchen drawers.  Just one.  I ended up cleaning all of the kitchen drawers.  I emptied them, wiped them down, and together with Husby decided what to keep, what to donate and what to throw.  I mean, seriously, how many bottle openers and cork screws does one household need?  I feel proud and organized.  I can hardly wait to tackle the cupboards!

So get out those sponges and rags, roll up your sleeves, and jump into the bliss that is a clean abode.  You’ll thank me.

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Has Spring Actually Sprung?

Posted in Everyday, tagged , on April 29, 2013| 5 Comments »

It’s a good thing I decided to roll with the punches, because once I did things turned around.  Drastically.  Last Monday we had a pretty significant snow storm and this past weekend the snow was gone and we had temperatures in the 70s.  You can’t even imagine how many people were outside riding bikes, jogging, skateboarding, and wearing the skimpiest clothes they have since last August.

Another activity common to people in our neighborhood was yard work.  Nearly everyone was outside cleaning up the debris of winter, including Husby.  He was outside working before 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning and has already made our backyard very tidy.  All we need is some green grass and we’ll be all set for summer.

Me?  I spent some more time cleaning.  I don’t have an entirely free weekend until the middle of June, so I thought I’d take advantage of this event-free weekend to get caught up with neglected tasks and also undertake some more spring cleaning projects.  Oh how I love the smell of Murphy’s Oil Soap in the spring!  I was even able to open the windows while I worked, which was a good thing because even with a nice breeze blowing through the house I lost about fifteen pounds of water weight with all the sweating I did.  Scrubbing takes a lot of work, you know.

I probably should have spent more time in Craftland pouring candles and otherwise preparing for the upcoming craft show season.  But getting the house into shape this weekend will make doing Craftland stuff more enjoyable ~ it’s hard to do something that doesn’t seem like work (pouring candles and other stuff) when you’ve got unfinished chores nagging at you.  I did enough this weekend to keep the nagging at bay, so this week I’ll be going full steam ahead in Craftland.

It’s so nice to see spring make an appearance.  I hope it decides to stick around.

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The Best Bath Ever

Posted in Everyday, tagged , , , , , on March 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The outdoor temperature got up to a balmy forty degrees (and then some) and it’s the end of March.  Do you know what that means?  Spring Cleaning!  There used to be a time when I thought all spring cleaning tasks had to be done within a week or two.  I don’t put as much pressure on myself anymore, especially as I have a day job that takes up a lot of daylight hours.

This weekend I decided to tackle the master bathroom and devoted all of Friday (considered part of the weekend because my time at the day job ends at 10:00 a.m. on Fridays) to the task.  I started with washing the walls.  I’m going to take the liberty to share my mom’s miracle recipe for wall washing solution.  It works wonderfully!

2 gallons water

1/2 cup baking soda

2 cups ammonia

1 cup vinegar

Sorry Mom, your secret is out.  But the friends of the internet will be forever grateful.

After washing the walls I washed the woodwork.  My favorite product for cleaning woodwork is Murphy’s Oil Soap.  It takes away those grimy fingerprints from cabinets, drawers and doors, and gives the wood a nice glow with the oil in the soap.  Plus it smells kind of good too.

I also use Murphy’s on my vinyl floors.  Not all the time, but when I want to get them really clean I use a little bit of the soap.  It worked beautifully for the deep cleaning of the bathroom floor.  Believe it or not I was actually on my hands and knees getting behind the toilet and in all of those edges and corners a sponge mop fails to reach.

The window also got a good washing, and the cafe curtains on the window were vacuumed.  The toilet was sanitized with bleach as were the jets of the whirlpool.

The tile was cleaned, the tub was cleaned, the shower stall was cleaned.  Every little nook and cranny, every piece of ornamentation, every candlestick, every soap dish was cleaned.  By the time I finished the job I felt really good, the bathroom looked bright and fresh, but I worked up quite a sweat and my back was killing me.

That’s when it happened.  I drew a bath of the perfect temperature and soaked in it for a while.  I couldn’t believe how luxurious it felt.  The bath itself wasn’t any different from any other, but soaking my sore muscles in a tubful of hot water in an amazingly clean bathroom felt phenomenal.

As Mary Poppins says, “Once begun is half done.”  Now that I’ve begun my spring cleaning I hope I can keep up to momentum and continue to give my abode the deep cleanliness it deserves, which in turn will give me the satisfaction and relaxation I deserve.  Happy cleaning!

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