Spring Fever … Virgo Style

This happens to me every March: I believe that Spring will arrive in this third month of the year. I believe that the gloomy, grey, overcast skies will transform into magical sunny clear blue warmth. I believe that I will be able to turn off the heat and go play outside in my garden and fill my planters and hanging baskets with beautiful impatiens, ivy, and geraniums. March 20^th is supposed to be the official beginning of Spring, right? Well, as always, this week was my reminder that Mother Nature has a calendar, and a mind, of her own (as all women do). As my little happy welcome dance for Spring was side-lined by cold icy snow (yes, SNOW!), I found my Virgo brain contemplating:

If I can’t go outside; what can I be doing right now – indoors?

If by chance you’ve read my book , you know that I possess many crazy Virgo tendencies, including a fondness for the neat and the orderly. Marry my “Virgotitis” with good ol’ southern girl sensibilities, and you’ve got a gal who likes her living spaces tidy. Wandering through my home, I wondered what out-of-the-ordinary Spring cleaning I could tackle. There were plenty of Spring 2013 outdoor projects piling up: gutter cleaning; power washing the siding; flower bed planting, etc. But, what could I accomplish indoors? This needed to go beyond the typical house-cleaning. I wanted to be inspired.

What follows are the results of this past week’s indoor Spring cleaning throw-down. My goal was to discover areas of my house that had been truly neglected for a long, long while. If you’re not feeling this, you’re probably not a Virgo.

• Cleaning the dishwasher. I recently discovered a website that provides great how-to advice regarding all types of topics and issues: One Good Thing By Jillee. I perused the site and discovered that, much to my surprise, dishwashing machines require cleaning – who knew? Jill’s (I hope she is OK with my calling her Jill) steps for cleaning a dishwasher are fairly simple: http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/02/how-to-clean-your-dishwasher.html Here’s a tip: do NOT skip the part about examining the drain area. I discovered some extraordinary gunk up in and around the drain. Seriously gross. After following Jill’s steps the next load of dishes did seem to sparkle a little brighter.
• Cleaning the washing machine. This was another example/inspiration that I found on Jill’s site. In the interest of full disclosure, in the dozen years that I have lived in my house, I have never “cleaned” the clothes washing machine. The grime that this endeavor dislodged was truly disgusting. I’m talking NIH-should-be-notified sort of stuff. I should also note that this cleaning exercise required a bit more elbow grease than Jill had suggested, but I can’t really blame her: the machine had not been cleaned since 2001! Here is the link to Jill’s instructions. http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/04/how-to-clean-your-top-loader-washing.html
• Cleaning out the kitchen junk drawer. We all have one, that one drawer in the kitchen where we deposit all the coupons, take-out menus, pencils, notepads, magnets, and various other will-throw-this-away-later treasures. It was amazing to me how much “stuff” had been shoved into this one helpless little drawer.

Before …

After … (I’ve been looking for those grill wipes for-ev-er…)

• Utilizing the self-cleaning oven function. This one might not really count; it was just too easy. However, there was lingering Thanksgiving sweet potato pudding on the bottom of the oven which definitely needed to be eliminated.
• Washing the pillows. All pillows are not created equal. I must admit that when I took the time to really inspect the pillows in my house, some of them just had to go. Others I saved by following the instructions that I found on Apartment Therapy: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-wash-your-pillows-marth-105944

There were a few things I did not get to this past week: washing the dog (which really needs to wait until it’s warm enough to go outside); and cleaning out the winter coat closet. Maybe I’ll tackle that closet next week; or perhaps Mother Nature will have other plans.

Happy Spring everyone.

Cheers,

Kimba