Cleaning House - Old & New

I have learned a lot of things from moving. Like, a ton.
None of which are things I wanted to learn.

The most recent being - I am a horrible house-keeper.
Cleaning up the old apartment was horrendous. Yes, I had started already, but it's much different once everything is out of the house. Which, yes, most surfaces were clean, and the kitchen and bathroom just needed a scrub (for the most part). But that leaves the floors.

Oh the floors. 
The floors are why we never had people over. You see, the carpets were (read: are) horrendous. Thank you, older dog, for making that be (and so now, in the new apartment, both dogs are not allowed to be unattended in a room, and are to be shut in the bedroom with us at night).
But that aside, I do not remember the last time I vacuumed at the old house. So far as the end-all cleaning went, I vacuumed, then got out the carpet cleaner and pulled up as much gunk as I could, and had to vacuum again, just because of how much dog hair was pulled up by the carpet cleaner that got left in clumps all about the place.

So far as the windows went, there was nothing to be done there - they weren't sealed properly, so they ended up with black gunk all around them (that would not come off, no matter how much bleach I used - yay, possible mold?).
The kitchen was alright, except for realizing that I hardly ever scrubbed the cupboards, and would often forget to do under the stovetop and the fridge. Also, can anybody explain how dog hair gets in the freezer?!

See, it's clean! Also, Minecraft poster on the counter waiting to go up above the sink - to have something to look at instead of the boring wall xD

While things in the new apartment are going well - dishes are getting done, clothes getting washed (I've even got a load of sheets in the washing machine right now!) - I'm fairly certain I will fall off the bandwagon, as I always do. 
But, I do enjoy having a clean home. It's nice to know where the shirt I want to wear is, nice to have clean pots or pans to cook dinner, nice to not have toothpaste all over the bathroom sink.
While my desk is a mess (of course), and the Mister's closet isn't actually holding his clothes yet, there is hope.

Starting with a clean slate is a good thing.
When I moved into the old apartment, the Mister had already lived there for about two years - and, being a guy, and having a guy roommate, there wasn't a whole lot of cleaning going on. And, at that point, cleaning was not a priority for me. Dinner had to be made, and clean clothes needed to be had, but I wasn't picky beyond that.

Here, though, it's a different story.
It was clean when we walked in, when we brought ourselves here. And yes, the office has dog hair all over the carpet already, but vacuuming it now (and at least once a week hereafter) will make scrubbing it with the carpet cleaner not horrendous. Washing the cupboards and shelves in the kitchen once a month will make it that much easier later on. Not letting the toothpaste collect in the sink in the first place will make it that much easier when it's bathroom cleaning day.

I'm hopeful. Not blind, but hopeful. I know I will fall behind at some point, I will lose "interest", if you will, and it will get messy.
But to be able to keep up on it, until that point...will make catching up afterwards all that much easier. And yes, it sounds like I'm planning to fail, but that's just the thing - I will fail, it's just a matter of when, and I would rather be prepared for it than not!

~Havok

P.S. We turned in keys Tuesday (June 23rd). The "pre-move out" inspection was scheduled for the 24th. We are crossing our fingers and toes that we don't owe them any money - please wish us luck! But SO MUCH THANKS to be rid of that place!
P.P.S. If you look very closely, you can see the coffee pot on top of the fridge. No, we do not drink coffee often. Which means it's a waste of space on the counter, until we want coffee - and it can be pulled down with ease. I was pretty pleased with that decision, ha!