Spring cleaning, purging and decluttering

It has been a few years since I have done a really, really good spring-clean and purge. I have stuff that has been stuffed in drawers, in bookcases, in closets and some just plain piled on every flat surface. This spring I have been moved to do a good deep clean, get rid of clothes I will never wear again, books I will never read again, and other stuff that I have no idea why it is in my house in the first place. 

I started with the piano; it is close to the dining table and tends to be a catchall for the things that have to be taken off of the table when we eat. So I found lots of writing pens, paper clips, letter openers, a box of envelopes, junk mail, and DUST!!! I didn’t think it had been that long, but the dust was almost deep enough to plow. I found a dog toy that needed to be mended, and some books that needed to be put away, so that brought about phase three, we will get there in a minute. 

Second I cleaned the little desk next to my chair. There I found a bottle of catnip I had gotten with a cat toy, of course I had lost the toy. I found a brand new package of screen protectors for my phone, must have ordered them when I got the phone, it has been a while. I found three notebooks, a bunch more pens and a crossword puzzle book. Then I moved to phase three. 

Phase three was a bookcase. It had gotten quite jumbled. I pulled all of the books out and threw them on the bed, then I sorted the books into the keep pile, and the give away pile. I found books I have read many times, books I have never read and books that I have no idea where they came from. I kept most of the research books, the bird identification books, some of the cookbooks, and the gardening books. I also kept some of the novels that I haven’t read yet. I reduced the books so a reasonable amount for that book case and had a huge pile on the bed. 

Those were sorted into two different boxes to be donated to two different places. So Phase three was done. Then today I did a small job. I cleaned off my dresser, which is right next to my bed. I will admit I am a clothes piler. My dresser was totally covered with clothes, most of them clean, but a few that needed to go into the wash. I found t-shirts I haven’t seen in weeks. I found socks I bought and then found that the size wasn’t right, I found clean clothes that just needed to be folded and put away. 

And then when I pulled out a box that I had all ready started putting some donation stuff in I found the most amazing thing. I found the cat toy. So the cat toy and its catnip have been reunited and the cat is enjoying her toy again. 

I have two mottos for this whole cleaning project. “One project at a time.” And the Nike motto, “Just Do It” And my method? Just like eating an elephant— one bite at a time. 

Quick Lemon Cake

1 box lemon supreme cake mix, ( with pudding in the mix)

1 cup sour cream

Juice of 1 lemon

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons oil

4 eggs

Butter and flour a Bundt cake pan, mix all cake ingredients until smooth, put in cake pan and bake at 350ºfor 40 minutes or until it tests done. Turn out on cooling rack. When cool make a glaze of the juice of one lemon and about 2/3 cup powdered sugar. The glaze consistency should be just right to drizzle. Then drizzle over cake.