The Ten-Year House Cleaning Plan

So, the best way to really clean your house is to have a fire. We had a fire about 10 years ago and had to wash all of our clothes, dishes, floors, carpets, mattresses, curtains, etc. I remember hauling everyone's clothes up to the kitchen to put them into 2 huge piles...the wash pile and the DI pile. The DI pile was just a little larger than the wash pile. I went through all of the cupboard and closets and got rid of so many things. This last May I had another opportunity to go through all of my belongs due to our second fire. You would think that I would have learned to not buy so many clothes, shoes, and dishes from my experience 10 years ago. I didn't. After going through all of Joe's, Marty's, and my clothes, the kitchen and bedrooms, I made quite a few trips to DI. The good news is that now, all of my clothes fit in my bedroom (before the fire I had most of my clothes in my "second bedroom" which served as a large closet). Having a fire also gives you an opportunity to go through every drawer in every room in your house. I kind of went through a "throw it away" phase for a few weeks throughout the summer. I figured that if I didn't use something in 2 years, I probably didn't need it. 10 years ago I had all of the ducts in the house cleaned. Good news... they have been cleaned out again! The mattresses are cleaned the rugs have been shampooed, and we even have new paint! There are so many other advantages to this 10 year cleaning plan... but, I am hoping that in 10 years I won't have to do it again!