Right before school started for 2020-2021 school year, we had a major house cleaning and moving around. Since Covid19 hit, the boys had been sleeping in the basement where it is dark and cool, however with school starting we no longer want them to sleep in so late so they need a place where they will wake up on time when school starts and the sun comes out. Due to covid, they all need space in the house to be in front of the computer for their classes. Since they all have different classes, common areas like living and dining rooms are not ideal, so we had to move things around the house to accommodate. With that set in motion, many areas in the house are being moved around too. From their bedrooms, then to the kitchen common area moving the big furniture around, then cleaning the kitchen cabinets, and scrubbing the kitchen oven, countertops, cooking utensils, and the drawers. That set in motion to clean the basement full of Abbey's arts and crafts to donate or trash the materials she haven't used in years. The boys also moved around some of their toys and stuff to keep it clean and tidy.
Below are the kids room the last several years, then you will see the transformation in the lower photos. The amazing thing is that since the kids are older, they actually did this all by themselves. The boys took apart one bed, used tools and screwed the bunkbed together. FF was actually pretty incredible, she moved the dresser and her bed by herself. After the boys bunked their bed, they moved two desks into their bedroom for have online school classes. FF moved a desk into her for the same reason. The other unneeded furniture are moved to the basement.
Onto the next project. The kids help moved and rearranged all the books and games shelf that we can enjoy the kitchen open area. It was a major task and they were willingly doing it. A snack bar and fruit bar were added as a bonus.
Next major hurdle was the kitchen itself: the stuff inside drawers, the exhaust fan, oven top, little oven, kettle, and countertops. We accumulated so much over the years, it was quite satisfying to have the kitchen, which everyone uses multiple times a day, to have it cleaned.
As we are moving things around the house, we also reconsidered some of our wall decorations and moved them around as well.
For years Da has complained that Abbey accumulated too much arts and crafts. She has been in the mode to clean the house, she finally cleaned all her arts and crafts. Donated or trashed a lot of old arts and crafts she no longer uses. It was so satisfying to have it tidied up!
And as a reward, Abbey made some of her favorite childhood snacks!!
