Spring Cleaning

Well, since last weekend was race weekend, this was a really low volume week for me. I have been trying to figure out what to do with a whole bunch of free time and only me and the kid in the house. It hit me like a ton of old magazines and clothes I have not worn in over a year...

SPRING CLEANING!!!

So far I have been to the recycling bins at the school to unload three laundry baskets full of old magazines that I will never look at again, but in the past I thought that I might just do that. There must have been 4 years of Bicycling magazine, a couple of years of Texas Monthly and Lifetime Fitness' Experience Life Magazine, a year of House Beautiful and Popular Mechanics, and odds and ends of Women's Health and Consumer Reports. Dumping all of that stuff into the recycling dumpster was kind of fun.

I took a huge load of clothes out of my closet to the Goodwill store front. My closet looks a little bare right now. Since I work in technical clothing every day, the need for dress/street clothing goes WAY down. I must have gotten rid of 8 sweaters, 4 or 5 skirts, 5 or 6 dresses, a blazer, at least 25 button down shirts and tops, a couple of fleece jackets and pull-overs, several sweat shirts, and a bunch of 5K and event t-shirts that really held no meaning for me. There was a lot of other stuff as well such as tank tops, hats and scarves, and clothes that still had the tags on them because they were too big or I had found a hole in it and I was too lazy to take it back to Marshall's.

I got a good start on my bathroom but I have yet to finish it. I cleaned out all the drawers and tossed out a mess of make-up that I never wear. I can't really wear the stuff when I am working as a personal trainer, and then I just forget to put it on. So, into the trash it went. I started cleaning out the cabinet above the laundry hamper. I had a bunch of lotions, perfumes, and other stuff that had been my mother's and when she passed away almost 6 years ago, I had cleaned out the bathroom at the house for my Dad when he was at work one day. Most of the stuff was new or barely used and I had never used it. Well today I was able to part with it and it all went into the trash except for the tiny perfume bottles from Paris that my Mother's friend who lives in France would bring back from trips for her. I am dreading it, but tomorrow I have to clean the tub and tile. The reason I am dreading it is because it is a huge Jacuzzi tub that basically a whole pre-school class could fit in. Seriously, in time crunches, there have been three people comfortably in there for a shower. So take your standard tub and raise it to the 4th power and that is the tub that I have to tackle. I am not environmentally friendly enough to wash my $2.99 Ikea plastic curtain liner. I am just going to hang a new one and try to listen for the far off screams of Al Gore. Sorry for increasing my carbon footprint there Al.

I have started looking at the pantry in the kitchen but I have to finish my bathroom and bedroom first. I really want to pare down to the bare bones so that it looks like a nice hotel room. I am finally going to frame and hang those wonderful French Cycling Posters from the 30's that one of my friends gave me for my birthday a few years ago. I love how these decorating magazines give you hints like, angle a mirror in the corner of the room to make the space look bigger and to provide some "wink wink" interest. Keep the lighting low and only use 60 watt or lower bulbs in the lamps. Banish the television from the room and pets as well. I guess these people don't live like the rest of us, HA! Well, Oprah's decorator, I don't have the TV in the room, but one whole wall is a closet with 4 huge sliding mirrors for doors. That will up the kink factor! Now, if I could just get my road bike out of the room...maybe the EPX would feel more at home down in the family room with the Kuota.

One room at a time. I will clean up my act. I will make my house look like real people do not live in it.

Monday is a whole lot of fun with getting my back poked with 80 to 100 different things that I might be allergic to at the Allergist's office. I will give an update.

Also!!! Set your DVR or TiVo for Saturday afternoon. NBC will be broadcasting their coverage of the Ironman 70.3 World Championship Race and I am one of the featured athletes! I am sure that they will edit out the entire interview so all I really say is something on the level of "I like dolphins" or something nice and cheesy like that. I will get all the specifics out in the next post.

Have a great day kids!

Liz