Spring cleaning in January

So I'm on a little bit of a cleaning rampage, doing all those annoying chores that usually get done once or twice a year like organizing the pantry and cleaning out under sinks and in medicine cabinets, washing the blinds and (at my house at least) thoroughly dusting. My to do list of these items is a little intimidating, so I'm bribing my kids into helping me...it's amazing what they'll do for $5!

There are a few different things that prompted this cleaning binge:
1. It needs to be done. This seems fairly obvious, but it's easy to ignore these kinds of chores until a certain point, but when you realize that every single item in your medicine cabinet is expired - it's time.
2. Company is coming in a little over 2 weeks. My mom is one guest and while I usually do clean when she comes, it generally isn't to this extent. Our other guests are the real motivation for me - my dear husband's brother and sister-in-law are coming to visit for the very first time ever. Yes, that's right, in the 18 years we've been married they have never been to our house, so I know it's important to dear husband that everything look as nice as possible when they are here.
3. The weather. It's supposed to be nice all week (high 60's) and I much prefer washing windows, etc. when it's warm. Plus then I can ignore the fact that I'm spring cleaning in January - what kind of nut does that?!?
4. I tend to go overboard on things - why just wipe down the outside of the kitchen cabinets when you can organize everything inside too? Why dust only what can be seen when the places no one has looked for years could be done also? Sadly, these are the kind of thoughts that go through my head when I'm making to-do lists like this, which explains alot doesn't it? The good thing is once I'm done, it should be a good period of time before it needs to be done again.

Now that I've started crossing things off the list (and stopped adding new ones), I see progress being made. My kids ask me why I'm doing all this if no one can see it (good question) and I told them that I'll know and that's what's important. I hope I'm right.