Scattered Sundays

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Friends, I’m keeping today’s post short. I’m beat. It’s been one heck of a busy week! I think the lowest number of daily steps I had was 19,700.

But? Things were accomplished! My home no longer looks like an active construction site, my dad’s garage is no longer full of 42,987 lbs of cardboard boxes and renovation crap.

Between Troy and myself, we took three loads of recycling and demo junk to the dump. One entire truckload was full of cardboard from flooring, supplies, and randomness. Thank goodness recycling is free at the county dump.

My dad’s garage served as the holder of all the crap from the construction project, and we basically just cleared a goat path thru it over the last 5.5 months. There were piles on piles on piles. You can imagine how much I loved that.

Now, it’s empty except for the normal garage junk that my dad already had. That’s his problem now; I’m retired. 🙂 Just kidding! My sister and I will empty it, deep clean it, and reorganize it during a weekend in May.

Speaking of my incredible sister, she came over last weekend and we tackled the task of getting my dad’s place back in shape. We had a rental pod in our driveway for months with all of my dad’s furniture, kitchen items, and other stuff.

A month ago, my sister, my brother-in-law, Troy, and I unpacked the pod and then just dumped everything into his apartment. I didn’t want to set anything up, because I figured once I did, the contractors would need me to move things. And so, piles just sat. And sat.

My sister and I did a bang-up job of putting everything in place in about three hours. Never ever underestimate the power of two efficient and busy moms who have stuff to do and no time to mess around. The place went from Mount Trashmore to liveable in less time than it takes to watch a Marvel movie.

Though once everything was put away, I had the week-long task of washing ALL the laundry and finishing up all the little details. I could only vacuum and mop one small portion of the flooring at a time because there was so much construction dust I’d have to change out the (reusable) mop pads after 100 sq feet.

Everything from bedding to throw pillows, to all the towels he had in his bathroom closet, had to be cleaned, folded, and put back. I may have drained a small reservoir with the amount of water I used this week.

While I’m thrilled to have this project behind us, I’d be remiss not to remind everyone that had we had an alarm on our washer, none of this would have happened. I bought this alarm within 24 hours of the flood happening. Never, ever again.

But, it’s done and things look great. And with that behind us, we were able to put our focus on the rest of the house. Spring cleaning for all!

Our old coat rack no longer fits on the basement wall due to the new trim around the doors. Which honestly, is fine. We had way too many coats for the old rack and it was always super bulky.

Instead, we ordered two smaller coat racks and put one above the other. Coats are staggered now, and things look so much better. But, while we waited for them to arrive, we just had a giant pile of coats sitting on the floor. It made me epically twitchy.

The storage footstool in our living room has been ripping for over a year. After looking for a new one for a few months, I finally found one that met our needs.

The old one headed to the basement for more seating down there, but most importantly, it replaced this dumpster fire of Nerf storage:

And now it looks like this.

My hatred of Nerf clutter is infamous in this family, and this is working a lot better for me. I mean, I’d prefer it all go to Goodwill, but it is what it is.

The weather was a huge help with our spring cleaning this week. Sunshine and the warmest temps of 2023 made it even easier to get motivated to do some purging and deep cleaning.

Troy and I found loads of (big) items to donate. Troy made a nice free stuff sign and piled it all at the road. Within hours, everything was gone, and we didn’t need to make a trip to Goodwill, and random strangers are now enjoying our “treasures”. Win-win.

It wasn’t all cleaning and organizing, even though it felt like that at times. I crushed my work to-do list and was uber-productive behind the scenes of this here website. Posts were written, lots of photos were taken, and tasks were checked off with a flourish.

While we’re on the subject of work, I just wanted to say a big giant “thank you” to all who left ratings and comments on recipes over this last week. I can’t wait to share them with you in todays and future Sunday posts.

In last Sunday’s post, I mentioned how much those ratings and comments on the individual recipe posts mean to food bloggers. And y’all showed up in a big way. Thank you very very much!

And with that, I wish you all a fantastic week ahead! It will be another busy one for us, but with a lot less cleaning hanging over our heads.

READER SPOTLIGHT OF THE WEEK

Long-time reader, Terry, left this five-star review on our Instant Pot Beef Tips {Pin this recipe}:

I made this dish at my husband’s request. He is a beef tips (and noodles) lover, but he is also a HIGHLY PICKY eater. They got his seal of approval and a request to make them again soon. No problem, easy-peasy in the Instant Pot!

ON SUSTAINABLE COOKS THIS WEEK

Chicken Fajita Casserole – This Chicken Fajita Casserole is a simple one-pan dinner of delicious homemade comfort food. Even better, this chicken and rice bake is incredible as leftovers. {Pin this recipe}

Garlic Hummus – this reader favorite (26 5-star reviews can’t be wrong) got a glow-up this week with new photos, improved instructions, and more meal prep and freezing tips added. {Pin this recipe}

Confessions – everyone’s favorite silly post of the month.