Yep, it's spring cleaning time again, but first we had a few errands: to Goodwill to donate a few pieces of clothing and two small purses and a couple of small appliances we don't use any longer, the post office to mail a birthday gift, the library to return Mother Was a Gunner's Mate, and finally gasoline for the truck at Kroger. We also stopped at Lowe's for a few things and James ran his hands covetously over the new grills.

This was proceeded, however, by breakfast: prepared French toast from Trader's Joe's, and some of the bacon we bought at the Farmer's Market yesterday. The toast was okay, nothing special. The bacon, as always, was fabulous, and with very little grease.

Back home we started on today's project. First James put his old C-PAP machine together in its carry bag for an emergency spare and put it away in the closet. He also put these on the back of the closet door. I use them in my craft room to hold sandpaper packages, iron-on patterns, and anything else light that can be stored in a plastic bag which can hang on the hooks. I put all the different tote bags on these hangers, and also some extension cords, which were formerly hanging under a shelf and looked cluttered.

The big project was emptying James' big 23" inch Billy bookcase (the size they don't make anymore) and re-arranging it. He has one shelf for some favorite books, but the rest are supposed to be reserved for to-be-read volumes. But he's been putting the finished books back on the shelf instead of downstairs, and now it was jammed full, and two Pisa-like piles of new books in front of it. Every time I vacuumed it tilted, and it was hard to dust, so that there were little dust bunnies everywhere that I just couldn't get rid of. Also, we had an extension cord going behind the bookcase which we used to use for James' fan. I worked it so the fan is now plugged in somewhere else, so we wanted to switch the extension cord's course (it had to be there, unfortunately, because the bookcase covers the plug) so that it comes out near the foot of the bed, where James needs it for his heated throw during the winter.

This basically meant moving the books on the floor and emptying the bookcase, dusting each book and each shelf as we went. There was over a full shelf of books that he had completed and could go downstairs, plus we were evicting the pile of magazines, so, after vacuuming the dust bunnies, polishing the shelves, moving the extension cords, and sorting the books (fiction from non-fiction, then non-fiction into smaller categories like World War II, space program, weather, and what I call "snark," plus putting the paperbacks all on the narrowest shelf), we re-stocked it. Voilà, no more book pile on the floor. Then James brought the completed books downstairs and shelved them, and I vacuumed again.

I also took our old cell phones and accessories and threw them in a bag and put them downstairs. I've had them still plugged in because if you don't the batteries start to whine after a while. I know there's a place you can mail them to a soldier, but I just haven't done it. In the meantime, I wanted them out of the electrical plugs.

We have a full box of books to donate to the library as soon as we get a minute, too.

For supper we had the soup I bought at Fresh2Order on Friday, and James had the other half of his sandwich from Fry's. We each had a square of gingerbread for dessert, and now we're watching America's Funniest Home Videos. Many cute dogs tonight!

Labels: books, food, organizing, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 6:33:00 PM

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