Spring Cleaning - yuck

The last week has found me cleaning every day. Twice a year I hit the house hard from top to bottom. It takes me about a month. Yes, a whole month, and it's not because my house is huge either. I don't like to clean. I feel like spending time with the kids and/or eeking out that 30 min. to myself every now and then is just more important than a spotless home. So on a good day it looks.... "lived in". There's 8 people in this little house plus various critters. So anyway, I've spent the last week in the kitchen. I always start with the kitchen because it's the worst. It gets the most use, it's got the most stuff, it takes the longest to finish, and when it's done I breathe a sigh of relief because it only gets easier from there.
When I start my spring (or fall) cleaning spree I start with the things I can't stand in a room. This year it was the kitchen floor. Tile painted white. Looked filthy no matter how much scrubbing you did. On the first day I ripped it up, got all adhesive off, then we wiped the ceiling, the light fixture was taken apart and cleaned, the tops of the cabinets wiped, and all the many things that go on top of the cabinets were taken down, cleaned, and re arranged. Anything that hadn't been used since the last cleaning and was not purely there just to make me smile was trashed or put in the goodwill box. We also took advantage of having the hutch/pantry pulled out (for the tile) and emptied and scrubbed it down, wiped down everything (each individual canned good ect.) and put it all back in and reaarranged/organized. Day two we wiped all the walls and emptied every one of the top cabinets wiping them down and everything that was inside of them wiped and put away nicely, discarding anything that didn't see use or have some purpose. Day three we pulled everything off of the counters scrubbed the tile w/ a toothbrush, scrubbed the stove top and switches, scrubbed the counter, sink, and dish strainer (yep that's right, going on year two and the dishwasher still hasn't been hooked up). Day four we did the inside of the stove and the microwave. Day five we emptied out all the lower cabinets and scrubbed them and their contents, even the cleaning supplies got a bath. Tomorrow is day six, we will scrub baseboards and floor and move into the kids bathroom. Other than the floor the kitchen looks amazing (for us). I found a new tile cleaning recipe that works wonders (neighbor walked in and actually asked if we'd always had that tile and it's the tile that's been here for more than 15 years. and the best part? I'm almost done with it!

p.s. the tile cleaning recipe is on my pinterest board http://pinterest.com/fluffington/life-made-easier/