Why My Refrigerator Door Isn't Bare

Follow "Clare's Contemplations" on Facebook-'cause we're friends, aren't we?

I had a dream once. Not the sleeping kind, the "imagine what you really want" kind. It was about my house. Mostly, that it was always clean. Now, if you know me at all, you know I really do try to keep my house clean. Not just picked up, but actually wiped down, dusted, corners swept, clean. The operative word here is "try".

I am enamored of the cleaning style where you pretend your house is for sale (that will never be the case for me in this house, since we rent) and so you always keep it clean, surfaces clear of clutter, in case you have someone come by for a showing. I have read enough articles about selling your house to know that limiting your personal items and keeping flat areas bare helps to promote a feeling of calm and peace that buyers are drawn to.

And to that end, I kept taking everything off my refrigerator. I thought I was supposed to enjoy looking at it's blank white door, that keeping it clutter-free would make me feel more orderly. I kept a few photos on it, but nothing to amount to much, and the bottom half for a long time had nothing on it besides the magnetic map puzzle of the U.S. (on of my sad attempts to try to help my kids to have a better grasp on geography than I do!).

But things kept creeping on there. I would receive a "precious" art piece from on of my kids and I would think, "I'll just stick this on the fridge until I can throw it away without them knowing." Or, they would slap a magnet on a freshly crayoned picture, for when "Daddy gets home". They were always bringing stuff home with magnets already applied-photo frames, charts, Scripture verses. And I would just keep telling myself that I needed to take it off, because that was how it was supposed to be, right?

And then I realized something. My kids are 5 and 7. I don't know if we will have any more-that is definitely a subject for a different post. But they just keep getting older, and every single prophecy that "the time will just fly" is coming true at an alarming rate. I really do treasure my kids. I take time to really *be* with them.

And so I don't really care if my refrigerator door isn't pristine and uncovered. It won't be long before there aren't any more crayon drawings and things pressed between contact paper. I will be the only one choosing the colorful magnets and I can curate the art to my heart's content. But for now, I am really enjoying all the little things that remind me that I have two healthy, sweet, *creative* children to fill up my refrigerator door. I know that if the Lord allows it, I will see my kids grow up to be wonderful adults, but right now I am treasuring this part.

“Show me, Lord, my life’s end
    and the number of my days;
    let me know how fleeting my life is.


You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
    the span of my years is as nothing before You.
    But now, Lord, what do I look for?
    My hope is in You."    Psalm 39:5-6a, 7 (NIV)

I don't parent perfectly. However, every now and then, I have a moment of clarity, when I realize that while I don't suppose I will ever remember stepping on Legos fondly, that I have the opportunity to create so many more good memories than bad ones. And when I think back on all the times with my kids, I want it to be about them, full of who they are, so that neither my memory  nor my fridge door are bare and boring.

Head Start on Fall Cleaning

I decided that once all of our summer fun was over I was going to tackle some serious cleaning around here. Spring isn't the best time for me to deep clean, with school ending and VBS preparations and a million other things. Fall is a little bit better, but I knew no matter what the calendar said I wanted to get started as soon as my sister left-that officially signaled the end of summer for us! I started the kids back to school on Thursday and I got elbow deep into cleaning!

I think it is really hard to know what works and what doesn't when it comes to cleaning tips and tricks, but I will freely admit that I usually try whatever looks easiest first. Living in a rental causes two problems: first, I feel like I am constantly cleaning after someone(s) else and second, I don't want to kill myself with exertion because we won't be living here forever and the next tenant probably won't care! However, I found a couple of things on Pinterest that worked like a charm.


Cleaning The Stove Vents and Filters
First, I realized that the vents above my stove (the hood is actually connected to my microwave-ugh!) were super greasy. I think whoever lived here before us was running a back-alley KFC or something- the whole kitchen was covered in a sticky orange paste of grease-gross! Baking soda is the best thing I have found to clean that-and a little elbow "grease".  But I knew that wasn't going to work for the vents. So I when I saw this pin by "One Good Thing", I knew I had to try it! She says that she actually got the instructions from a different site, but she basically duplicates it on her's. You take a 1/2 cup of baking soda, add it to boiling water and place your stove vents in the pan. Then, according to the other site, you boil them for five minutes. My vents were kind of long, so I had to turn them upside down to do the other part. And it made a HUGE mess on my stove because I overfilled my pot- I think I need a bigger one! I also had to do it twice, because I have covers for my vents, and filters, and I did both. However, I think you can see from the above pictures-it was well worth it. My vent covers and filters are the cleanest they've ever been-and I was thoroughly disgusted by the goo left in my pot!

Cleaning the Microwave
Next, I tackled my microwave. I keep it pretty clean, normally. One of my best tips is to keep a plastic microwave cover *in* the microwave! Anytime anyone goes to heat anything they have to move it, so it usually helps to remind them to use it-usually. That helps a ton, but since I was gone for  six weeks, Joel is not quite as fastidious about it as I am. I had used the vinegar and water trick before, but in case you need the instructions Jillee came to the rescue again! It literally takes no effort to get your microwave clean by "cooking" a cup of water and a cup of vinegar for 10 minutes, and then you just wipe it out! It makes me happy, and you can see from the photo above it left it pretty darn clean.

What's Next
So I hope to tackle each room in my house individually, but I haven't finished the kitchen just yet. I am planning on:

-Deep cleaning my dishwasher
-Lining the cabinet under my sink to improve it's appearance and keep it cleaner
-Cleaning my oven-ugh!
-Wiping down the insides and outsides of all my cabinets and purging them (by the way, Murphy's Oil Soap works so well for this-it cleans *and* gives a nice shine!)
-Clean the refrigerator and freezer

And on the finished list:
-Clean and reorganize the pantry
-Clean the microwave
-Clean stove hood and vents
-Clean and reorganized 1/4 of the kitchen cabinets

Hopefully it won't take until spring to get it all done... I would love if you have any tips and tricks you would like to pass on as I work on the kitchen and the rest of the house-I'm all about the easy way!;)

Linked up to:
Thrifty Thursday at Living Well, Spending Less 
Show Me What Ya Got at Not Just a Housewife
-

A Little Update

Exactly what I am NOT doing...

I haven't posted in over a week! Craziness! I make myself as busy as I want to be-and I hate it when a post just doesn't seem to be flowing. I had my mind set to write up a couple recently, but when I actually sat down at the computer they seemed contrived and just didn't work. Anyway- in the past 10 days:

1. Joel officially had his last day in uniform. He is on "terminal" leave until the end of October. He also quit his second job (Home Depot, in case you didn't know-he was working nights there) in order to find something that will fit better with his new school schedule. He starts in October.




2. We went to Cheyenne over Labor Day weekend. And I forgot my camera! We visited the most beautiful little park. It had a terrific area called "The Children's Village"- it was so surprising! It had all these terrific water features, and was absolutely enchanting. However, I won't drone on, since I don't have any pictures. My personal favorite part was the labyrinth. I had never walked one before, and it was so peaceful!




3. I started leading Bible study again last week. It is a lot of work, but I love it. I don't know that people realize how much time and energy that kind of thing takes, but I am much more appreciative of all the good leaders I have had in the past. I am really passionate about growing and developing the group this year. I think we are off to a good start.




4. I am cleaning my basement. Our house has sort of a funny lay out, so everything that doesn't have a home ends up in the basement (and is slowly finding it's way out of the house-I love it!). I got a new shelf for my stockpile, and I am doing some rearranging and sorting. I am also prepping for the semi-annual JBF sale-super excited to rid myself of all the kids clothes from last winter!

5. Lots of clearance shopping! This is my favorite time of year for good deals-I stocked up on $0.10 notebooks today, because my little artist (Josie) is using up one every couple of days. My fave recent finds: $6 jeans at the Gap, a free Battleship game (I had a coupon) and an adorable little pencil box that is so perfect for all my pens on my desk!





In addition to all that, last weekend, we had dinner with friends. This weekend we are having a Lifegroup dinner, and the kids start Awana on Sunday. I am praying that goes smoothly, since I won't be teaching and it is at a new church. I am keeping up with laundry, and schooling and all the other million little things. It doesn't seem like much, but it keeps me hopping! I am hoping this week we will be able to ease into a more "normal" schedule. I don't know if I can keep up this pace!:)

Cleaning Conclusions

I would love to have an immaculately clean house. I long for a day when I can open my door at any given time and everything is perfectly picked up- nary an item out of place. I have tried all sorts of methods and programs, but my house stays pretty much the same. Moderately picked up- usually clean. The norm to get it "company ready" is about 2 hours. Not bad, especially considering that I have pretty high standards. However, I would love to just have it ready at a moment's notice (or at least clean enough to invite the Schwan's man in without apologizing). I was discussing this very subject with a friend on Saturday. I came to a few conclusions:

1. Most people who have perfectly clean houses (although I think the word I am looking for is acutally "tidy"- my house is clean: vacuumed, dusted, bathroom wiped down, etc.) have either fewer children than I have , or they have much younger/older ones. That is: people who have infants, or no kids, or kids 7 and up, usually have a little more help or not as much mess. I have to say: when I just had Jocelyn my house was clean all the time. She was not quite the destroyer Carson is, nor did she need as much direct supervision.

2. Owners of tidy homes are not as inclined to participate in many activities. We have three regularly scheduled activities a week (4 if you include Sunday church) and a multitude of other one-time occurrences (this week we had dinner with friends twice, I had drop-off and pick-up for the JBF sale, I went to the outlet mall-twice!, and a couple of other things I am pretty sure I am forgetting) I could trim back the number of times we are out of our house, but I am not sure that at this point that I am willing to make that sacrifice.

3. They usually have exceptionally neat AND helpful husbands. I have a helpful husband, but he is not neat. He is horrible about leaving clothes anywhere and everywhere (the bathroom, dining room, living room...) He will do anything I ask, but he is not particular about putting things where they go. If they are in the general area, or out of the living room floor, he is happy. I don't believe he has ever put away the kids laundry and if he can't figure out where something from the dishwasher goes (he has emptied it twice in the past three months) he just leaves it on the counter. However, he is great at vacuuming and also motivating the kids to be useful . So, I'm not complaining, just explaining.

4. They have more rules than I am willing to commit to: no shoes inside, no food outside the kitchen (we can't eat in our kitchen), only water for the kids, etc. We do have rules, but I don't have one for everything- I couldn't remember them all! It is not in my personality to be that regimented.

5. They have much more regular schedules than we do. It is 12:00 pm as I am writing this and Joel has already been home twice. That usually disrupts anything we have going on. This happens quite a bit, but not every day. I have a routine that I try to follow but I have to be flexible. I can't be a slave to the clock.

Basically, I realized that unless I am willing to make drastic changes to my lifestyle I will probably never have a constantly show-ready home. I have decided to make some small changes to see if that will help me to be a little more welcoming to random people who come to the door. I recently instituted a rule that the kids can no longer bring "upstairs toys" downstairs. I am working at doing more quick tidying of the front rooms, rather than deep, totally organzied cleaning. For some reason, everything in the house gravitates towards those areas!

I also have to say that I am sure that there are people with lives similar to mine who have cleaner houses. But, I am learning to balance the desire to have a "perfect" house with having a wonderful family and a busy life. I think that I can have some of both, but I will never have all of either. It does make me feel better though, when on a day like today, my house is clean, schooling is done and my Bible study and Awana lessons are planned. Almost makes me feel like I can do it all...almost.

Carpet Cleaning Conundrum-Solved!

I hate the carpet in our house. It attracts...EVERYTHING! We are not slobs, although I wouldn't lie and say I am a perfect housekeeper, either. However, the carpet in our house torments me on a daily basis. Silly things, like the spot in the upstairs landing (you can't really properly refer to it as a hallway, but I haven't come up with another name for it, so landing it is) where Carson spilled almost an entire bottle of shampoo, nag at me every time I pass them. Since this is not our "forever" home, I try to take care of it for the next occupants, but I also feel like it is a little futile to invest tons of our money in upkeep.

I was torn, since we really don't have a firm grasp right now on what the future holds, as to what to do about the carpet. I wanted it to look decent, but when we buy a house it will NOT have carpet if I have anything to say about it. I love tile, wood, I would even deal with linoleum, but I would really rather not have carpet. I have had both, and I have to say, I prefer the pitfalls of hard flooring vs. the evils of carpet. But, since I can't replace this, I had to have a solution. I thought about hiring it done, but since 5/6ths of our house is carpeted and we have carpeted stairs, it would be expensive. Also, we had a couple of spots (like the aforementioned shampoo) that I knew would require a little extra TLC. I didn't want tacked on charges for things like that. I thought about buying a steam cleaner, but unless we got a really nice one, I didn't think it would be able to do the job. Plus, if our next house doesn't have carpet then it wouldn't be worth it.

So, that left me with renting a carpet cleaner. I had heard both pros and cons. They worked well, they didn't work well, they were cheaper, they cost as much as hiring a professional. I really didn't want to deal with someone from the outside, so I finally decided we would tackle it ourselves. Except I waited until after Joel had ankle surgery! Since we are having a party to celebrate his birthday this weekend, I thought I better just go ahead and bite the bullet. I went this morning and rented a Rug Doctor. The shoppette three blocks from our house has them.

Well, needless to say, I am not sure why I waited so long! I am not completely finished (it is a LOT of work) but I am definitely going to end up with a cleaner carpet. I pretty much removed all the shampoo (that alone took almost 30 minutes) and my stairs look great! Why am I such a procrastinator? I am thankful that even though it is very labor intensive it is not difficult. There is a lot of filling and dumping of the tank (at least every room) but other than that it hasn't been anything besides pushing either the entire machine or the upholstery attachment back and forth. I think I am covered in cleaner from head to toe, too. But I found some coupons online and with the extra upholstery attachment, stain pre-treatment, de-foamer, and cleaning fluid it was less than $45. I thought that was pretty cheap, less than 1/2 of what it would have cost for a light professional cleaning. I am feeling so good I think I might even tackle the sofa!

Not sure why I felt the need to post this, kind of boring. I guess I am just excited that I finally found a solution to my problem. Yay for clean carpet-now if we can just keep it that way for a little while!:)

P.S. I have to thank my sister, Robyn, for finally persuading me to try doing it myself. I steal all my best ideas from her.:)

9 For 9/9/09

I thought it was so cool that today is 9/9/09 that I wanted to post something. I am feeling very ready to get our vacation started... but there is still plenty to be thankful for in the meantime! So, today in honor of the date, 9 things I am thankful for:

1. That all the berry juice came out of our clothes! I made funnel cake fries with fresh berry dipping sauce and while they were a hit with the kids I was more than a little worried that the deep purple raspberry, blueberry, blackberry sauce might never come out of our clothes. Thanks, Shout Dual Power!

2. That I found shoes to match my formal for $10! And I think there is good chance that I might be able to potentially wear them again so that is a double bonus.

3. Joel painted the chest in Carson's room! It has been on my to-do list for the last... forever. It now makes all his furniture coordinate (except his crib but due to his climbing abilities I have a feeling we will be swapping that out for the white toddler bed sooner rather than later!).

4. My mom sent Jocelyn's reading book! We will begin the journey of learning to read right after we get home from vacation. I am a little nervous, but mostly excited, about this new adventure. I think I will be even more proud than when she was potty-trained!

5. I found a fabulous dress for our cruise for-$6- can you believe it? It retailed for over $60 and I think I will look very Jackie-O in it. I love that decade's styles!

6. I have already bought the kids' Halloween costumes. They are going to be adorable! I hate waiting until the last minute to get that kind of stuff so I am happy to have it all done. And the best part of all- they will match! I will post pics after the fall festival in October...

7. I cleaned my hall closet this week. It is so organized- and has so much room! Definitely a fantastic return on my minimal time investment- 1/2 hour of work for a whole lot of happy.

8. I am thankful Joel and I have found a video game we can enjoy together! He loves to game and I usually just watch- not as fun as it sounds!:) We love jamming out together with Rock Band. I can even play on medium pretty proficiently now. Not too bad for two weeks of practice!

9. I am thankful we are leaving to sail the ocean blue in less than a week! Now if only the packing fairies would hurry up and get here....