Well, here goes nothing. I'm sick and tired of my house being cluttered. I clean it, look around, and it still looks terrible. I've found a few ideas on Pinterest to help me get started on de-cluttering my house so it can be sparkly clean, if such a thing actually exists.
As with anyone else, I do much better if I am held accountable for something. Lately, I have been losing weight by exercising and changing my diet so that I can fit into my pre-Cooper clothes. Which I can (well, all but 2 capris), YAY! To stay on track, I have attached myself to myfitnesspal and LOVE it! It always makes me think twice before I eat anything.
This is my attempt and being held accountable for the mess I call home. It really wasn't this bad before I started working again, but my work schedule this past school year was not condusive to home life at all. Little by little, my little mess became a colony of little messes.
I found a PIN that is called 40 bags in 40 days. I won't say I actually collect 40 bags because I purge as I clean, but I can attest that I'm purging, or at least finding permanent homes for things that cannot be thrown out. I think my challenge will be more like 40 areas in 40 days.
I started out by writing down 40 spaces that need to be worked on. At first I thought, really, 40, no way. But as I'm cleaning, I find other areas I missed on the list. So I may have to ammend my list. Keeping the list to 1 small area at a time makes the challenge feel more manageable and attainable.
Each day I will focus on 1 space. That one area may be big or small depending on the day. The beauty of it is, I can choose which area I do every day. I don't have to go in order. I am starting with the couple of spaces that bug me the most and that I will get the most satisfaction out of completing. Please don't judge. I'm just posting pictures to keep track of my accomplishments, that way I can look back at how far I've come. This is very similar to looking back and where I was physically before I started my weight loss journey.
Below is my list of spaces to attack:
DAY 1--Kitchen Counter
I have 2 spaces that really need to be cleaned (as you can see over on the left side of my sink by my Kitchen Aid mixer), but the bar that sticks out is the biggest problem. I can only use about 1/2 of it at a time. Why have such a large countertop and neglect half of it?
Before
After
Now the lighting isn't great but, you get the idea. I felt so great after purging and wiping this counter down, it made me want to do another area...
that's where the 2nd part of this journey comes in. The second idea I found was to have a set schedule as to what needs to be cleaned and when. About a year ago, my hubby asked me why I hadn't cleaned the baseboards, dusted the ceiling fans, cleaned the air returns, etc. I responded with: I am not a deep cleaner. I never have been and never will be. Get over it. Well, the time has come to eat crow. I always go into these super cute houses and with mine could be that way. I think the first step is to have a clean (non cluttered) house that I can start to decorate and feel really proud of.
I used a couple different schedules on Pinterest and then merged, added, twisted, and came up with this:
I know it's hard to read, but if you want a copy, I can email it to you, or maybe I'll post mine to Pinterest as well. There are a few things I do daily like dishes, garbages, 10 minute tidy 2x per day, laundry and vacuum (as needed), make bed. Then every day I have one focus for the day.
Monday--Kitchen
Tuesday--Living Room
Wednesday--Bedrooms & Hallway
Thursday--Bathrooms & Laundry room (shares with a bathroom)
Friday--Family Room
Saturday--Work Outdoors
Sunday--Enjoy free time with the family
One each of these days, I'm doing a deep clean. The paragraph you see below each day is the items that need to be cleaned. Now this seems crazy...and this week it will be, seeing as I have never done this. It's going to take a little more elbow grease to get things cleaned, but next week, it will be a quick swipe of a cloth and I'll be done. Ideally, it shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes (not including the daily tasks).
What better way to start off the deep clean that to get the girls to help out. Many hands make a heavy load light (or something like that, I know I butchered it). The girls each completed tasks withing their capabilites. Jade spent the entire time deep cleaning each chair and the table.
Kazia spent her time scrubbing baseboards, walls, the microwave, stove top, and oven door, while I cleaned the front of the fridge and microwaved, wiped down all of the cabinets and countertops, front of dishwasher, doors, windows, window ledge, sink, and took out the garbage. When we were finished, I felt very proud of our efforts, and so did the girls. I noticed that they tried to clean up their spills and dishes more since they spent the time to help clean.
DAY 2--Living room corner by piano, and top of piano
Now I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but see the huge tupperware box? Well, there's 2 stacked on top of each other that I received my tupperware in back in JANUARY! They are completely empty and are a waste of space. Lovely.
Before
Before
After
Lets just say that because of a stack of empty tubs and 2 huge boxes, there really wasn't that much to clean up. It really only took about 15-20 minutes tops. I can't believe I left it all there for so long. It kept piling up and looked like a large monster to tackle, but in reality, it ended up being a tiny mouse.
Now I just have to share one of our deep cleaning moments. Below is a picture of our cold air return that Kazia and Jade had started scrubbing. I couldn't believe how dirty it really was. YUCK! It makes me feel so much better knowing that I'm getting all of this filth out of our home. :)
