Parrot Nation

Cleaning at Best Friends. I don’t mind cleaning there.

Years ago in the time of BP, (Before Parrots) I remember looking around my house and I could not for the life of me find one more thing to clean or straighten. It was perfect. It was a seriously clean condo. All my laundry was done, the ironing had been done, (Yes, I used to iron…) and the  baseboards were gleaming. I had even removed the air conditioning grates in all of the rooms, soaked and scrubbed them and put them back.

Those were the days…

Now? Yeah, well, not so much.

Having parrots is a messy business. Face it, they’re little pigs. They toss food everywhere and feathers and dander get into everything.

They also take up the chunk of time I used to spend cleaning. Now instead of cleaning under the sink or straightening a closet, I’m cleaning cages. Or bowls. Or sweeping up dander and feathers. Naturally, things have a way of getting away from you after a while.

This happened to me. And so on some time off from work, I decided to do something about it. I have almost three weeks of vacation. And instead of getting on a plane and going somewhere, I decided to be my own personal “Stay-At-Home Cleaning Crew” and whip this place back into shape. I want to lighten my load, de-clutter and cut my amount of “Stuff” by about a third.

Can it be done? I think so. I’m on day four of my “cleaning odyssey” and have accomplished quite a bit. First things first. I began throwing stuff out. At first it’s easy. There’s a lot of obvious crap you can get rid of.  So far 3 shopping cart loads of junk went into the trash.

I murdered my mop on day two and had to get a new one:

Mop #9

My utility closet was total holy hell, so I got in there, completely de-cluttered it and got rid of all kinds of stuff. It’s now pretty decent looking and all I have are 2 boxes of tools and fasteners to put back in the toolbox. My friend Kent is coming over to help organize it in the toolbox and help me decide which of the three thousand screwdrivers I have accumulated should stay and which get donated.

Jaws used to live in the hallway. Not anymore!

So over the next few posts, I’ll be showing you my cleaning project and how I got my place fairly clean. I will use before and after photos if I can remember to take them before I tidy up and de-clutter. I’ll share what I know and what I learn from the process as I go. Perhaps when it gets warmer in your area, you’ll want to use what I have learned as a template for your own spring cleaning project.