Cleaning Ex-Library Books

We were manning a bake sale today which coincided with a library book sale, so we peeked at what they had.

There were books about birds, and a Golden Nature Guide about shells. All hardbacks. My mother has passed on the happy curse of loving books to me, so I brought home five of these for a total of two dollars (three were free)!

They were filthy, though! I cleaned them with dish soap on a wet rag, wrapped around my finger. The amount of dirt on these books was disgusting. They didn't look that bad until I started washing, then I could compare the clean part with the, uh, not so clean part. Gross.

It's amazing what a bit of scrubbing can do!

Rooming, Part II

Continuing to bring my room back to health this morning, I organized my drawers and then, *gasp* tackled the closet. Chrissy and I are very blessed, in that even though we share a room, we each get our own closet. Sadly, I let mine get away from me pretty easily, and have to do a thorough cleaning of it every now and then.

Behold, the "Before" photo:

Yikes. Paintings, boxes, folders, marionettes and whatnot on the shelves. All of my clowning supplies on one side, and fabric, stuffing etc. on the top shelf. I only wear about half of the clothing that are hanging. There were five bags and backpacks in there which I never use. I kid you not.

Two hours, one garbage bag full of junk, and many items to the thrift-store pile later...

The "After" photo:


Yes, that's a door behind the clothes. It goes to the attic.

I washed down the shelves, fixed the shoe rack, thinned my clothing, and organized the fabric scraps. Each shelf now has a specific purpose, and all of my Etsy items are in the bins on the right (the clowning items went to the basement).

We had Spring weather here today, so I left the window open the whole time, which made the job very pleasant. I usually like to clean, but even more so if there is a breeze coming in.

Rooming, Part I

Well, after a month of intermittent sickness at our house (which has not ended yet), my bedroom has been looking a bit unloved. Humidifier and rags on the dresser. Clutter all over my desk. My closet is a disaster, and my drawers are messy. Time to clean!

Yesterday, I tidied my dresser and desk, removing all unwanted items and papers (i.e. everything I don't need or like). Then I removed all the extra books from my bookshelf (there were about, oh, three of them)/ I chucked most of a stack of notebooks which were residing next to my bed, and all but two garden catalogs.

More tomorrow. Onward and upward!