clean up, clean up, everybody, everyday

So everybody takes a week off work to clean their house, right?  

Oh, just me?   Thought so.

Decided to use up the rest of my vacation days in March since it's going to be another busy year at work and it was one of the last open times until it gets rough.  Summer means budget season and the fall will bring another system changeover.  So on the vacation to-do list was to finally clean up Ryan's old room since he moved out three years ago and it doesn't seem like he will ever move back home.

One thing I found was this container that my mom had with extra shoelaces for Ryan.  She was always labeling stuff.  So organized.

We threw away tons of stuff and gave away a lot of old clothes.  All together with our things, the Kamehameha Thrift Store and Kidney Clothes got maybe 15-20 bags of clothes and other items.  It felt good to clean up some of the clutter.  We're not as bad as hoarding, but things had gotten pretty out of hand.  Lots more to do, though.

When I saw the Lego boxes in the closet, I had hopes that the Lego pieces were there, but no luck.  These boxes went in the trash.  If they had been intact, they would have been worth a lot.

Ryan came over and got a kick out of playing with his old Gameboy and Pokemon game.

Cleaning up wasn't that easy because I wanted to go through Ryan's school papers.  I found this treasure from maybe middle school?  I kept a lot of things with his handwriting.  I'm going to have to go through it again to one day, maybe with his help.  Though if it was up to him and Darrell, it would all be in the landfill already.  Not sentimental at all.  

We wound up breaking the vacuum cleaner and having to get another.  There was a lot of dirt and dust in that room!

Ryan and Darrell moved the couch from our bedroom into Ryan's old bedroom, and we also moved Ryan's old TV from my office to the bedroom, so it's on it's way to becoming Darrell's new "man cave."

Our reward for cleaning was a Keurig coffee machine.

And it was free!  I had a Macy's "Thanks for Sharing" reward card, a $25 rewards certificate, and a gift card.  Darrell is enjoying making coffee everyday.

Overall it was a good vacation, just to take care of things and spend time with Darrell.