I know spring cleaning is the traditional term, and I do enjoy getting to pack away heavy comforters and bring more sunshine into my life. However, since my life runs on the academic calendar, summer is when I really have the time to stop, look around my house, and make some substantial changes.

Each year that we’ve lived in this house, I’ve tackled some kind of summer project, from painting rooms to buying a new furnace (the priciest) to slipcovering couches. This year, I’ve done some decorative painting in the kitchen, as well as hung new curtains and moved around our table and chairs arrangement. I’m planning to paint the vestibule right inside our front door, and I’ve painted our favorite Hamlet quote along the risers of our interior staircase. I’ve also done an intensive cleaning job in the kitchen, tackled piles and piles of laundry, scrubbed down the main bathroom a few times, and dug into cleaning out the fourth bedroom we use mainly for storage, resulting in bags of trash and a pile of donations that will be picked up next Wednesday. I’ve gone through our linen closet and reorganized it, and am planning to paint the front porch steps and replace the front porch chairs before we go back to school in late August.

Every year I start off in September resolved to be consistent in my habits, taking better care of our house and not letting the clutter and mess build up to such ridiculous levels, and every June, I look around and see how much I’ve let slide. Sometimes I feel like this is unavoidable, and other times, I feel frustrated at once again letting go of routines and habits that I know make me feel better.  I am not sure I’ll ever be able to break out of this cycle, but every summer, I resolve once again to whip my house into shape and keep it that way until the spring comes around to warm us once again.