A Good Start on Spring Cleaning

 My daughter and I have been busy Spring cleaning... if you can call it Spring here in Wyoming.  It's supposed to snow again this evening and it is C.O.L.D.  We feel it even worse today because it's been nice all week.  Today we worked on the kitchen cupboards - took everything out, washed the shelves, organized all the contents into logical categories, then put it all back and labeled it.

 Here you can see the labels a little better.

 Now I ought to be able to tell at a glance what I need to buy.  I'm hoping that having a place for everything will ensure that I always have the stuff I normally use in stock.

 We did the spice/baking cupboard, the coffee cabinet, the main pantry cabinet, and the cabinet above the fridge, which holds crackers, chips, granola bars, and extra condiments like tall ketchup bottles, and the million jars of mayonnaise I picked up on sale for 50 cents apiece - there are probably 15-20 jars.

 The baking and spice cabinet used to be a complete disaster.  I didn't know what I had and finding it was a nightmare.  So we put the spices we use all the time on a lazy susan, and the extras in a plastic tub we can pull out.

 Then I used some dot stickers and wrote the names of each spice on the dot and stuck it to the lid so I will be able to just pull out the tub, and see exactly what I'm looking for.  We found 3-4 allspice and clove jars... which is something we hardly ever use.  Not sure how that happened.  And we found that we don't have any lemon pepper or Montreal steak seasoning, both of which we use all the time.

 This is our fourth day of Spring cleaning.  We have a schedule and so far have done really well to stick with it.  One day, we sorted the toys back into their proper cabinets, as well as cleaning all the toys out of the yard and throwing out the broken ones, and washing one of the vehicles.  We still need to clean out both vehicles, vacuum them, and wash the car, but we're getting there.

 Another day we cleaned out the entryway closet.  If you had seen it before you would be really impressed by this picture.  Ha.  I didn't take any before pictures.

 We also cleaned out and organized the chest we keep in the front entry.  The daycare kids sit there to get their shoes put on and taken off.  It used to hold ski boots, ice skates and such, but now it now holds snowpants, gloves, hats, rollerblades and helmets.  Our ski hill closed so we don't ski anymore, and the ice arena just removed their ice for the season, and by next year we'll need new skates anyway, so no sense using the space for those.

 The first day we started by moving the piano.  It used to be on the wall to the right, but the vcr and dvd player (and printer) all sit on top of it, and it was a disaster of trailing cords.  So I moved the piano under the wall-mounted tv, and now it all looks neat and clean.

 Another day we did the laundry cabinets and shelves.

 We still need to clean around the washer and dryer, and the tops of the machines, but we'll get to it.

 Now for some cute baby pictures.  Here he was waiting patiently for lunch.  I just love how his hands are crossed ;)

 This is his new trick.  He likes to bang his fists together, and one night we sang "The Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock" which uses the motions of one fist pounding on the other.  Now, whenever we come to pick him up, he'll laugh and pound his fists together, and gets so excited when we sing the song.  It's too cute!

We happened to find a small tub of nuts when we were cleaning, and the nutcracker.  The three year old thought it looked easy enough.  Too bad he didn't realize he was using the wrong end of the cracker.  He finally said, "Open it, Mama!"