Tonight is a worknight, so my Spring Cleaning project will hopefully only take an hour or so. I plan to clean and refresh my downstairs guest room – the one we call the Peacock room. I don’t have any guests arriving until later in May, but now their room will be fresh and lovely for them.
QUICK THINGS TO DO TODAY:
- Let’s brighten our homes a bit with some inexpensive tulips or daisies, easily picked up at our next grocery shopping trips.
- Do you have pots of colorful flowers on your front porch or doorstep, and on your deck or patio?
- Take inventory of your paper and plastic products. Do you need more Kleenex, paper towels, toilet tissue, garbage bags, sandwich bags? Add anything you need to your shopping list for the upcoming weekend.
- Do you have any library books due to be returned this week? Any movies you rented this week from Redbox that need to be returned today?
- I forgot to take my vitamins all week until just now. How about you?
- Any birthday scoming up next week – the last week of the month – that you should be planning to call, send a gift or card, or order flowers for?
TODAY’S SPRING CLEANING PROJECT: Guest Room #1
My guest room doesn’t have much furniture – a bed, two nightstands, a bookcase, and a small storage dresser. There are two lamps, and quite too many decorative pillows. I figure the hardest part of my project today will be moving the bed to vacuum under it.
Here’s my Spring Cleaning checklist for this room today:
- Febreze the curtains
- Wash windows and windowsill
- Wipe lamps
- Remove books from bookshelf; dust bookshelf and move it out of the way for vacuuming
- Dust and remove nightstands and storage dresser from the room
- Move bed and vacuum room thoroughly; replace bed
- Launder bedding so it’s fresh and not dusty
- Dust walls and ceiling with broom to get rid of any cobwebs
- Wipe down walls and light switches as needed
- Dust door and closet doors with wood cleaner
- Remove the two framed posters in the room, dusting them and the wall behind them before replacing
- Empty closet of any clutter
- Replace furniture
- Make bed with clean sheets
- Open window and air out room for a few hours
After I’m done cleaning and putting the room back together, I’ll put some thought into any maintenance that needs to be done in the room (possibly replacing an unattractive heater vent with a newer one). I’ll also think about any furniture, decor or textile upgrades I might want to budget for in the future. I’m definitely saving up for a headboard or frame to set the bed in so it’s not just sitting on the floor. The bed itself is only a year old so I’ll get many years of use out of it for my guests.
I’m not happy with the two nightstands, but that’s not crucial at the moment. I love both lamps and all the peacock themed room decor. I’ll want to swap out some of the books in the future for newer ones. The carpeting is new, so I won’t have to worry about that for about ten years.
If you have a guest room, put some thought today into how you could improve it for your guests, what you might want to purchase for it in the years to come, and any decor you might want to edit out of it. If you haven’t spent the night in your own guest room, I highly recommend it. That really helps you know what the experience will be like for your guests!
LOVELY BLOGS: The Modern Day 50s Housewife
This blogger is taking a break from blogging for the summer, but we can still enjoy her archive of useful past posts. The current post is her thoughtfully designed Spring Cleaning Checklist.
You might also enjoy her past posts on How to Survive on One Income, her posts on Old Fashioned Parenting, and her collection of Old Fashioned Recipes.
I’m looking forward to reading her blog when she returns later this summer!
LOVELY BOOKS: The Creative Cottage
This book came out recently, back in March. It showcases thirteen American cottage style homes and their owners. I’m currently fascinated with cottages myself, and would love to have this on my coffee table for guests to enjoy thumbing through. It would be so fun to peer into the cottages and learn a bit about their eclectic owners.
The Creative Cottage, on Amazon
LOVELY BOOKS: Sunny Rhymes for Happy Children
This 1917 book is so darling. You can read it for free on the Internet Archive. It might be nice to download onto your Kindle or tablet so you could read a couple quick rhymes to entertain a fussy niece or nephew at a restaurant. The illustrations for each rhyme are sweet and colorful. Enjoy!
Sunny Rhymes for Happy Children, at The Internet Archive
LOVELY DISHES: Sur la Table’s French Garden Collection
I cannot think of any excuse to buy any more sets of dishes. If I could, I’d love to serve my outdoor meals this summer on these! I’ll have to console myself with the thought that once you put food on the plates, their pretty script and designs won’t show anyway.
French Garden Collection, at Sur la Table
LOVELY HOME AND GARDEN: Little Cottage Greenhouse Playhouse
Alright, I can’t afford to put this in my backyard, and likely, you can’t either! Let’s spend a moment drooling and dreaming. It doesn’t get cuter than this – a playhouse made to look like a greenhouse? Too adorable.
Little Cottage Greenhouse Playhouse, on Amazon
LOVELY LINKS FOR TODAY:
Alphabet Pie, 1941 (The Mid-Century Menu)
Easy French Toast Casserole (Love From the Oven)
Easy Mac and Cheese Muffins (The 2 Seasons)
Italian Sausage Sloppy Joe (Our Eating Habits)
Mediterranean Omelette (Bakers Royale)
Mozzarella Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms (Champagne and French Bulldogs)
Perfect Garlic Bread (Smitten Kitchen)
Roasted Beets with Dill and Chive Yogurt Dressing (The Bitten Word)
Spring Chicken Pasta Salad (Hungry Girl Por Vida)
Spring Roll Salad (101 Cookbooks)
White Lazy Lasagna (Joy Filled Eats)
Wild Berry Lavender Layer Cake (Annie’s Eats)
–Copyright 2016 Lovely Living
