Why I hate Spring Cleaning (but still do it anyway)

I received a press release about Spring Cleaning from Rentokil that reminded me of a Spring Cleaning Story that I hadn't shared here before, so I thought it would tell you my story and about the press release!

Before I was really into my Flylady routines I liked to do big in depth cleans and declutters. These were mostly at Daddy's expense as he would lose out on sleep as I would make him get up early on the weekend to help me.
Daddy painting the Garage Door, which was the only photo of the Garage I could find!

"Lets clean out the garage tomorrow and the loft next weekend!" I said to a sleeping Daddy as I poked his shoulder
"What?" he answered looking at me as if I had two heads and in a little surprise from the sudden soreness of his shoulder
"The Garage lets clean it out and get rid of the rubbish in there and do the loft next weekend." I said
 "Lets not and say we did" he answered rolling over to go back to sleep
"It will be fun!" I answered to his snoring back

Somehow the next morning I managed to get him to agree and so after lunch we went into the garage whilst the children played on the lawn where we could keep an eye on them through the Garage window.

"So how are we going to make it fun?" Daddy asked
"Well lets take a leaf our of Mary Poppins book" I answered and turned on our Garage PC. "Music will make it fun". And as if by magic (but really thanks to a wireless internet connection) music was streamed into the Garage.

 We went through everything and even had a mini fashion show of some aprons that had been put into the garage for storage and everything was going great. Not even the huge scary spider that was crawling up my leg freaked me out. I was perfectly happy and having lots of fun until I found a nest of mice.

Yes a nest of mice. Not a mouse. Not two mice, but A.NEST.OF.MICE.

Normally I like mice. I think they are cute and I am always sad if I see that our cats have managed to catch one but a nest of mice in a box that I had just put my hand in? I don't like that.

I don't like that one little bit.

To say I screamed would be like saying that my children only *like* sweets. I ran out of the garage so fast that I swear I left a little fire trail behind me (like the car in Back to the Future), but I can't be sure as I wouldn't go near the garage again just in case a mouse got me. As I stood at the far end of the garden jumping up and down, making noises that may or may not have been English, my husband got rid of the box that held the nest of mice. Laughing he called to me;

 "You know, cleaning out the garage out was fun after all!"

So you don't find a nest of mice in your house here are the Top five spring cleaning tips from Aggie MacKenzie from the press release!
  1. As part of your spring clean, throw out any expired food and items that you brought and never used as these can be perfect sources for moths, rodents and insects
  2. Call in a professional to clean if your carpets and rugs are heavily soiled as even the smallest crumbs can act as sustenance for pests.
  3. Rodents will often make their nests behind refrigerators so don't forget to vacuum the refrigerator coils and sweep and mop underneath (when the appliance is unplugged)
  4. Sort through junk in the loft - pests are happiest in undisturbed areas.
  5. Ensure any clothes you're not planning to wear for a while are perfectly clean before storing in sealed plastic bags or suitcases to prevent moths from nesting in them.