Hints of spring cleaning

Now that we seem to be about halfway through Breakup (fingers crossed!) I'm trying to make sure that our spring cleaning gets done. Because there's a lot to do, some of it will naturally go slowly. But tackling one or two chores in an evening is much more manageable than saying that I'll do everything in one night, weekend, or week. I know myself too well, and my ambition is usually much higher than my motivation.
So it's little things for now. The other night, I switched out our winter sheets and it was warm enough to remove our heavy down blanket. Now we just have a quilt (made lovingly by one of Shane's cousins as a wedding present), one light down blanket, and two very thin blankets. (Those last three are mostly because, since it's still below freezing at night, the bed gets chilly under the windows before Shane crawls in with me. Even snuggling with the dog doesn't provide quite enough heat to make up for a sudden lack of blankets.) Before putting it away, I'll give the down quilt one of its twice-yearly washes.
This weekend I'll also be washing our pillows. It's important for things like that to get washed because they absorb just as much sweat and drool at night as the blankets and sheets do. (Ewwww!)
Flipping the mattress is the final step for the bed. Although, we might actually just switch out the mattress entirely for the one in the guest bedroom. It's much newer and nicer. As in, it doesn't have a dip in the middle where we've been sleeping on it for years. :)
Since I hauled out the tote with my summer clothes in it, I also went through things. I realized that whatever I didn't want to pull out should probably just be donated to Value Village since I'll never wear it. I also went through my winter clothes and got rid of pretty much everything which I didn't wear on a regular basis. When I go to Value Village (maybe this weekend?) I'll probably see about getting a few more t-shirts and a light sweater to replace one which was ruined. (It has several very large stains.) If I don't find anything I love, though, it's no big deal. But a lot of my shirts that I wear regularly have little holes in them from either wear or the cat's claws. They started out as little holes, but some of them are getting noticeable now.
I'll also need to go through more of our things to see what we never use and what could/should be gotten rid of. I'll need to nag (yes, nag) Shane until he actually goes through his clothes to get rid of the ones he never wears. He takes up more closet space than I do simply because he never gets rid of the massive pile of clothing which he doesn't actually wear! I would slowly remove and donate them myself, except that I know some of them fall more into the category of keepsakes: a few shirts from high school sports, mementos from family trips, etc. But I know what actually gets worn because it never gets put back in the closet. I do our laundry together (it amazes me how many couples do their laundry separately!) but I refuse to fold his because he's so picky about it. And because he's so particular, it takes him a long time to fold and he pretty much refuses to do it. So there's a laundry basket just for his clean clothes. What's in the closet hasn't been touched since he folded them so neatly and put them away when we moved in. And yes, I realize the absurdity of all of this!
There are other things in our house which should be donated, however, so there will be lots and lots of bags full of donation items. Figuring out what should be donated and what's still useful will probably be the biggest and hardest task. What to do about items which rarely get used? I have a small pillow which I only take on plane rides. It's wonderful for that (the seats are shaped in such a way that, because of my height, I end up hunched awkwardly and get horrible back and neck cramps otherwise) but not really for anything else. Do I ditch it and try to find something more multi-functional, or do I keep it? Do I keep the sports equipment in the hopes that we get to play those sports again? I really don't know.
Vacuuming and carpet shampooing are next on the list. No, I don't just vacuum once or twice per year! But it is a rather detested chore (not least because it terrifies the cat) so I tend to push it off longer than I should. The shampooing is also something that needs to be done regularly with pets in the house.
Having my uncle come over last night did sort of kick things into high gear, at least temporarily. Our place has been looking a little shabby and we've let things get out of place, so I ran around putting things back in order and making some quick decisions on a few items to get rid of. I was shocked at how quickly I managed to make our apartment seem more tidy! Of course, it's a good thing Uncle never went back to the bedrooms or into the garage.... :) Those areas were not so tidy.
The other biggest spring cleaning project will be the kitchen. For our birthdays, Shane's parents gave us a whole new set of pots and pans. We need to figure out which of our old ones we want to get rid of, and we need to find places for all of the new ones. And we need to do a deep cleaning and organizing of all the counters and cabinets. It's going to be a big project. But, little steps are the best way to go about it. I don't need to thoroughly wipe down all of the counters at once, just do one or two spaces when I have the time.
With spring also comes planting season! I need to get started the plants which should be started indoors, no later than next weekend probably. So thrilling! I might even be able to get them outside by mid-May this year. Super early, which is worrying, but good for gardening!