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Summer Deep Cleaning Part 1

This #savewithbubbles shop has been compensated by #CollectiveBias Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.
So remember a few weeks ago when I said that I was going to take this summer and really get our house organized on top of regular deep cleaning after this pregnancy? Well I finally got started in the past couple of weeks. Finally being the key word. It was long over due!
After this pregnancy of being so horribly sick for the first 4 months and so ridiculously exhausted and sore the last few months of it followed up with the craziness and exhaustion that comes with having a newborn in the house again (plus two other kiddos this time!) and it's safe to say undertaking has been long over due. 
The method that works best for me when deep cleaning/organizing/purging is just take it one room at a time. Or one closet at a time. My major projects this past week were;
1: Organize the 'junk cabinet' that somehow has become over the past two years of living here, the place we store random crap. 2: Organize the front hall closet where we store all of our winter gear. 3: Organize and deep clean the upstairs bathroom, probably my least favorite task.
I'm more than slightly embarrassed to be showing you the before pictures of these projects. That's how bad they were. But hopefully you guys won't judge me too harshly. 
This is basically where everything in our house that doesn't have a proper home goes. And over the past two years its gotten beyond ridiculous. I've been meaning to organize this cabinet for over a year, but as you can see it's a daunting project. But finally I just did it. And I'm so glad I did! Two huge bags went straight into the garbage. Mostly old paper work, a lot of it from Jasper's school. Old mail. Things that got brought to the car for long trips and then brought back into the house ended up in here. 
I made a pile for Drew to take things out to the garage. A pile of school work of Jasper's we want to add to his big 'keep forever' bin, things like special projects, stories he's written etc. I kept the blue bin in there for pictures that haven't made it into an album, a shelf for photography things that I don't want tossed in my huge props container in the basement, a shelf for some quick craft things the kids can do when I'm making dinner, and of course some miscellaneous things. It doesn't look great, but it's a huge improvement and at least now I can find what I need in there! 

Early every summer when we are finally done getting snow by organizing front closet. It gets super disorganized and messy by the kids grabbing their winter gear and not doing a stellar job putting it away where it belongs. But if it ends up in the coat closet vs. on the floor I'm mostly a happy mom. 

I used to sort it by hats/gloves/scarves etc, but this year I decided to do it by person, so each family member has their own bin in the closet with hats/gloves etc. I'm hoping that helps them with putting their items in the correct bin, instead of just thrown in like shown above.  And the finished product. One day I want a huge entry way with a better system for organization, but this will do for now as storage is hard to come by in these brick Denver bungalows.

And my last big project this week, the upstairs bathroom. I can't even blame this mess on anyone but myself because really I'm the only one who keeps things in there. I still hadn't unpacked my toiletries from our Jackson Hole trip so there is it sitting on the counter. And since we have been gone so much the past 6 weeks I haven't been able to get our cleaner to come in and do my normal bathroom deep clean so I had to do it by myself. I know, poor me. 

Since our cleaner usually brings her own supplies I first went to Dollar General to pick up some cleaning supplies. For the bathrooms, I picked up Scrubbing Bubbles® Bathroom Cleaner and Scrubbing Bubbles® Toilet Cleaning Gel.  

My bathroom counters were especially gross because Tindra woke up from her nap the other day and snuck out of her bedroom and into the bathroom and dumped an entire container of leave in conditioner everywhere. I did a quick clean up, but the counters and floors were still pretty sticky. A quick spray of the Disinfectant Scrubbing Bubbles® Bathroom Cleaner and a wipe down and they were good as new! I didn't even have to scrub, just wipe them down.

 If you want to give it a try, from July 12-August 2nd Scrubbing Bubbles® will have some great coupons ( $.50 off any Scrubbing Bubbles® Bath product, $1 off any Scrubbing Bubbles® Toilet Cleaning Gel product and $.50 off anyScrubbing Bubbles® All Purpose Cleaner) on savewithbubbles.com.
Next up on my whole house organization and deep clean..our bedroom closets! Any tips for those? 

Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach recommendations?

The count down is on! Next friday we will be arriving for a week at the beach! I'm so excited! I was there once 3 (almost 4!) years ago for my sister's wedding, but it was just a quick 3 day weekend and I was 8 weeks pregnant with Tindra and sick the whole time. This time I can't wait to go explore! Has anyone been? Have any must sees and must do's with kids? Favorite restaurants? Where should I go for THE best iced coffee? I have my priorities obviously! If you've been, please share!!

Three Day Weekend

Mondays after three day weekends are rough. Mondays after three day weekend and I'm out of coffee? Brutal. BUT after I fed Soren Drew took him down to hang out with him while he got ready to work and I got to stay in bed an extra 45 min. Which was complete bliss and almost makes up for the fact that I don't have coffee. Almost.
We had such a good three day weekend. If every friday could just become part of the weekend that would work really good for me. 
Friday morning we decided to head to our old neighborhood mini water park. We used to go there a lot when we lived 5 min away but have only been once since moving into Denver almost 5 years ago! We took the kids by our old house and I was surprised that Jasper recognized it right away. We only lived there for a year when he was 2! But we have been back since to drive by so he might just be remembering that, not actually living there. 
The kids were being so good and having such a fun time we decided to stay for lunch and past nap time (I'm pretty strict about nap times for my sanity so its super rare for me to forgo that) and all the kids ended up taking a little nap in the car on the way home.

Saturday was so last night minute on our plans. We are never actually in Denver for the 4th so we didn't know What we wanted to do. Last year we were in Sweden and the year before that in the mountains. We ended up getting donuts and heading to the park in the morning, and in the afternoon playing outside and then grilling out at some friends and catching some fireworks from their front porch. Perfect low key 4th! 

Waking up Sunday after two days off already (by off I mean Drews off so I have help, which feels like a total vacation) and realizing we still have another whole day together is the best. We decided to go to Confluence Park. Its a tiny little beach along the Platt River right in the middle of Denver. A fun urban little area, minus the homeless guys sleeping on the benches and the broken glass from beer bottles we kept finding.. thank God for the invention of water shoes! The kids had so much fun in the river and digging in the sand. Jasper said 'Its like we are in North Carolina already!' Ha. He has no idea apparently whats in store for him in a week and a half when we get to the Real beach! 

After playing at the 'beach' we went and grabbed some delicious burgers and fries before heading home for a late nap (for the kids) and some cleaning for Drew and I. 

All in all, a fantastic 3 day weekend! Friday we lave for Iowa and next Wednesday the kids and I head to North Carolina!