It’s that time of year again when I begin to get restless and start looking around the barn for what needs to be done to get it organized for the coming warmer weather. Spring-cleaning the barn after a winter of, shall we say, less-than-perfect weather takes a toll on everything, the tack room especially. So that’s where I usually put my organizational skills to work. Sounds impressive doesn’t it? Don’t get too excited about it; I’m certainly not.
First, I usually start by cleaning out the refrigerator. I don’t know how we wind up with teeny little pieces of carrots, mushy apples and half bottles of tea or water, but we manage quite nicely to make a mess of it. Then it’s on to the cabinets where the medicines are stored, and the drawers that collect lots of junk. Basically, I throw out any thing that can’t be used. Do you know how many pieces of useless twine and bits of paper collect in a tack room? Well I do, and it’s not a pretty picture. Next, all the wraps and saddle pads get washed and properly stored (you know, instead of left hanging on any random hook or in a tangled pile on top of a tack trunk, where they spend most of the winter.) All the tack gets cleaned: saddles, bridles, halters, lead ropes etc…The fronts of the stalls get a good washing with Murphy’s Oil Soap and the barn, including the loft, gets dusted and/or vacuumed and cobwebbed. All the light fixtures get vacuumed and dusted too. The wash stall, which seems to collect wheelbarrows and shavings bags, gets cleaned out and made ready for spring baths. The trash man loves me, I’m sure.
The hardest job is of course stripping the stalls and cleaning and disinfecting under the rubber mats. Then it’s on to the stall walls; they can be a real mess but Murphy’s Soap does the trick. I probably won’t be blogging for about a week during this messy job. But I’ll try to get before and after pictures, just because I’ll be so proud of myself I wont be able to resist sharing what a cleaning machine I can be when I put a little effort into it. Or, as my mother used to say, “use a little elbow grease.”
If I’ve missed something let me know or tell me what your spring routine for cleaning and organizing is, I’d love to hear about it. See you next week. Or maybe not, I’m hoping the weather warms up enough for us to start painting some jump standards and rails before we set them up. I’m being optimistic and hoping that the jumps get their fresh coat of paint coinciding with a weather change for warmer riding. Keep a good thought!
Until next time
Quote for Today
Dog lovers hate to clean out kennels. Horse lovers like cleaning stables. - Monica Dickens
We’re trying to organize the tack room and, once again, my daughter, being the genius she is, has come up with a brilliant idea. We have a few too many saddle pads and needed a place to put them that was easily accessible. In order not to put wet, sweaty, hairy, stinky saddle pads in the trunks, they would usually wind up laying on top of a tack trunk or draping over a saddle. Everything looked messy and unorganized until she found this rack online at Schneider Saddlery. We hung it in an out-of-the-way unused area of the tack room. This rack lets the saddle pads dry and they are neat and ready to go when we’re ready for them. I like the fact that the arms swing to the left or right so the pads slide on or off with ease. The arms are also removable, so it can be dismantled easily. We bolted this one to the wall, but it is designed to also be portable and can be hung over a stall wall from the hooks included with it. We have another for wet blankets that we can hang over the wall of the wash stall. If you’re interested in purchasing one, visit www.sstack.com.
