well, i cleaned the old house. top to bottom. really rather an event! here's a blow by blow (as if i wanted to keep any readers lurking around here! LOL)

so, first i went through the house with a duster. i hate to dust, but this didn't take long at all. amazing how fast you can clean if there's no furniture in the house! next it was time to use the floor duster. it's kind of like a mop but you put a dust catching cloth on the end and chase down dust bunnies! next it was time for a wipe down. for the tatami rooms, i used a spray bottle with vinegar and water and a rag. the other rooms (mainly for window sills and frames) i used household cleaning wipes. thank god for costco! then came the hardest part: mopping. i have an excellent mop from clorox, i just love it. i don't know what i'm going to do when i run out of refills! i mopped every room, except for the tatami ones, i even mopped the bathroom floor! it's embarassing how dirty the bath is, but the water was turned off sooner than we expected. ah well, at least i'm confident in the knowledge that the house is cleaner than on the day we moved in! last of all, i washed the windows. on the inside only, but hey, i'm not really bothered about it since it was such a pit when we moved in. i had to do a little bit of finishing up in the kitchen (easily the dirtiest room in the house) but i am not ashamed of how it looks.

you may be wondering where the kids were during the cleaning. well....they fell asleep on the way to the house, so i left them in the car. it took me about two hours to get it all done, so they got a nice long nap and i got the house clean. don't worry, i had all the windows open and i wasn't wearing earphones!

now all i have to do is clean the current house!