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Post by manygoatsnmore on Nov 1, 2016 7:28:39 GMT
Share your to-do lists for the coming month, your tips and tricks for cleaning and organizing, and what you are doing each day to make your home a more organized, calm and welcoming place to be.
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Post by manygoatsnmore on Nov 1, 2016 7:38:05 GMT
I've been working my way through the house from room to room, and yesterday I finished the last cabinet in the kitchen. I need to help Abby tackle the rest of her room and get it organized - it is a bit of a pit. That's a big to-do for November. I also need to spend some serious time on my pantry. I bought drapes for the window in there, but they will need to be shortened, or I'll need to raise the curtain rods. I'm leaning towards just raising the rods. I want to get rid of the broken-slatted mini-blinds in that room. They are really unsightly and can be seen when you drive in the driveway. There are cobwebs, spiders and dust to defeat in there, too, and I need to make a new inventory of what we have on hand. I want to put up the new curtain rods in the kitchen nook and living room and get the curtains back up in the nook. I need to make new curtains for the living room and hang the sheers and curtains so I can also remove the miniblinds in those windows. Actually, I just want to remove ALL the mini-blinds in favor of curtains and sheers. The kitty boys have chewed through several of the cords and the blinds are just sadly dated and tired. I want to have a fresh look.
I'm continuing to declutter and give things away, and I'm hoping to eventually have the whole house under control at the same time! I'll have more items to add to my to-do list, but in general terms, I just want to continue to improve each day.
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Post by midtnmama on Nov 1, 2016 22:56:28 GMT
Flylady week of Oct 31-Nov 6: Front Entry, Front porch and Dining room
Daily 10-15 min missions. After doing these, if you still have time, go to the detailed cleaning list:
Mon: No task--I guess because of trick or treating?
Tues: Sweep the front porch and get all the cobwebs low and high
Wed: Clean the front enry area--put away shoes and coats
Thurs:Clean the walls and windows of the dining room
Fri: PUt away things that pile up in the dining room. Things that get dumped on the table.
Entrance Detailed Cleaning List
Start at the ceiling and work your way down to the floor.
Clean cobwebs
Dust window sills and front door
Clean switch plate of hand prints and walls if needed
Put plants in to the shower and give them a good rinse. Let them set there until you are finished.
Dust furniture
Dust baseboards
Straighten the coat closest
Sweep vacuum or mop the floor
Put back the plants. You would hate for DH to walk into a jungle tomorrow morning.
Add your own personal touches to make it more welcoming.
Dining Room Detailed Cleaning List
Start at the ceiling and work your way down to the floor.
Clean the cobwebs
Dust window sills
Clean the window
Clean doors of china cabinet after you straighten dishes if they need done. Dust.
Clean and straighten any drawer
Clean off top of dining table and polish
Rinse plants in the shower
Dust the bottoms of the chairs.
Dust the baseboards
Move furniture and vacuum underneath (except the china cabinet). I turned mine over one time. It was not funny.
Add your own personal touches to the table (table cloth, pretty bowl, flowers)
Front Porch Detailed cleaning
Sweep down cobweb and spider webs (In the summer, I leave them. I feed the spiders, too, LOL.)
Sweep off porch furniture.
Sweep the porch.
Throw away any dead plants.
Prune back unruly bushes from the entrance.
Repot planters if necessary (in summer)
Refill bird feeders.
Wipe off tables, banisters, and light fixtures.
Get rid of unwanted items.
Add your own personal touches to welcome friends and family (wreath, welcome mat, bell)
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Post by manygoatsnmore on Nov 2, 2016 5:13:37 GMT
Thank you, midtnmama, for posting the flylady checklist. I do have some work to do in my dining room - the built in shelves need purged and cleaned, and the top of the games cabinet needs a thorough dusting and cleaning, and the kerosene lamps that live there need some work. The bookshelves in there also need vacuumed/dusted, and I need to think about purging some of the school books that we no longer need. Copied from the Daily Journal because I'm too tired to list it all again: I continued my house cleaning today - I'm exhausted tonight. End of the day, I've changed my sheets and flipped my mattress (with Abby's help), done umpteen loads of laundry including soaking all the white T shirts in Oxiclean and hot water, canned up a dozen half-pint jars of cream cheese, cleaned all the wax off my stock pot and insert with boiling water (used to hold melting candle wax a few weeks ago and it's been taunting me ever since), brought in several stock pots that had made their way to the chicken pen and not returned, scrubbed, scoured and boiled them clean, scooped cat boxes and swept the utility room, kitchen, master bedroom and bathroom, got out my little Nesco roaster and put the undercooked rotisserie chicken in it to finish cooking, cleaned the stove, including the drip pans and the spills underneath there, cleaned all the kitchen counters, finished the dishes, over and over, and over, cleaned out about half the fridge, scrubbed out all my water bottles and refilled them, finished cleaning the rest of the iron out of my nephew's Brita pitcher to the best of my ability, sorted out more clothes to send to the Standing Rock Reservation, including going through my closet and drawers for anything I don't wear often or that I don't love, bagged up the recycling to take to town Thursday, and probably more that I've forgotten! Added: remembered to put away the Halloween stuff, leaving out the fall themed Thanksgiving type stuff. Then when I went in for my 2nd shower of the day, the shower head broke off in my hand! Luckily, I was about done, because all of a sudden I was getting a rinse like I've never had before, lol. I have a new low-flow shower head that needs to be installed, and everything I need to do it except the energy to do it tonight. I'll do it tomorrow morning - I'll have to, if I want a morning shower! |
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Post by susannah on Nov 5, 2016 17:34:07 GMT
I spent a little time this morning doing a much neglected chore: Not only cleaning the kitchen garbage can but also the cabinet that houses it. We have a pull-out cabinet specifically for the garbage bin, and while I often clean the bin, I don't usually remember to take that out, sweep in behind it (sweeping inside a narrow little cabinet is a real pain, let me tell you...)...and scrub down the inside of the cabinet. Talk about gross...I won't be neglecting that again any time soon. It just got to be too easy, pulling open the cabinet door and pulling out the garbage bag. I do feel better knowing it's sparkly clean in there now. And try not to think about how long the "ick" was building up.
We're almost done with the new bathroom. The shower is finally done, and today the accent wall will be painted. Then things are kind of on hold till next year when we can afford to put shower doors on (it's a stand-alone shower, not a shower over tub). In the mean time I'll hang the old shower curtain on a tension rod so the shower can be used if need be. What this has to do with cleaning and organizing is, the wet saw for the tile - previously living in the new master bedroom - is now downstairs in the utility room where it belongs. As are several dozen other items related to the master suite creation. No, the master bedroom won't be done for several months, but you can actually walk around in it now. About half the tool clutter that was previously there.
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Post by manygoatsnmore on Nov 6, 2016 6:54:15 GMT
Good job, susannah! I'm looking forward to the day when I can put the last of the stuff that I don't need in the house out in the shipping container, and then I can enjoy walking through my nice, orderly home (and start thinking about how much needs to be done OUTSIDE). My shower repair required a little more work than I thought, and I ended up calling my neighbor to ask some advice, which resulted in him coming over and helping me with the rest of the plumbing problems in my house. I now have a new toilet and working taps in the guest bath, although I need to have a valve replaced to the toilet and a diverter pipe capped before I can use the tub in there. Still, I see the end in sight. Plus, I bought the right parts to fix the shower in my bathroom and installed them myself. It's a little thing, but it feels really good. I've continued working on my house, and I'm starting to see some real progress. I still have another pile of stuff to haul out to the storage container, recycling or Goodwill. I really need to turn off some breakers and try my hand at wiring some fixtures and another switch. There are several lights that need work or replacing in my house. I really want to get that done this month. I did get started on my pantry today - didn't get very far, but at least I started! |
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Post by midtnmama on Nov 6, 2016 13:35:37 GMT
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Post by manygoatsnmore on Nov 12, 2016 6:59:31 GMT
midtnmama , I know what you mean. I finally got started on Abby's room and the pantry, and that led to tearing my closet apart, too, and now I have a huge mess in my living room of all the stuff that I haven't found a good home for in my house again. I wish I had a garage. So many things that I have in my house really should be in a garage, attached to the house, with somewhat heated, dry storage. I have the shipping container, of course, but it's not convenient when I need a tool NOW. I'm a bit demoralized at the moment, as I was so close to having a beautifully neat, tidy home, and now it's all torn apart again.
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Post by midtnmama on Nov 12, 2016 18:27:20 GMT
MG: You know, I think that is the reality of cleaning and organizing--you can't make more time. Today I'm focusing on washing all the tile floors and applying sealant that I hope will bring back some shine (not hopeful, though). Already had the disappointment of the expensive laminate spray polish do absolutely nothing. I am getting out the car wax for that.
So, everything else will not be done so I can get these done.
We are all doing well to get one thing done at a time. Let's get our good feelings from the love that people have for us, not the amount of cleaning we did!!! I was talking to my husband this morning about how the people I was in awe of for their extremely clean and tidy homes are all divorced and have messed up, unhappy lives. Let's do our best and keep our eyes on the prize.
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Post by midtnmama on Nov 13, 2016 20:16:27 GMT
manygoatsnmore, midtnmama, susannah, Fly lady week of 11/13/16 : Bathroom and one other room Spend 15 min a day on missions. Move to the detailed cleaning if you have more time than that. Mon: Check supplies in the bathroom. Tues: Clean the sink, countertop Wed:Clean shower/tub Thurs: Clean the laundry room area by cleaning the top of the washing achine and dryer Fri:Since it's cold and flu season, wipe down your door knobs, light switches and phones in your home. As many of them as you can accomplish in 15 minutes. Print each room on a separate sheet of paper. Copy and paste into a word processing document. You may need to add a few of your own details that apply to your home. Bathroom detailed cleaning list Wash area rugs Scrub/wax floor Straighten drawers/ cabinets Clean shower stall/ wax (not the floor!) Wash shower door Clean medicine cabinet Clean scale Throw away empty bottles Extra bedroom detailed cleaning list Polish furniture Straighten drawers/closet Clean cobwebs Wash mattress pad/dust rug Flip mattress Wash curtains Wash windows Clean window Clean bath tub Clean top of sewing machine Straighten bookcase Straighten computer desk Clean out the closet Put away stray items Fertilize plants Children’s bathroom detailed cleaning list Wash area rugs Sweep/scrub/wax floor Straighten drawers/cabinets Clean shower/tub stall Wash shower door Scrub bath toys Wash down outside of toilet Throw away empty bottles Children’s bedrooms detailed cleaning list Polish furniture Straighten drawers/closet Clean cobwebs Wash mattress pad/dust rug Flip mattresses Wash curtains Clean window Straighten toy shelves Clean under the bed Clean out the closet Put away stray items Sort out-grown clothes Vacuum under bed/closets Dust baseboards Clean fingerprints off door/walls Rearrange videos/games/books Office detailed cleaning list Clear off the surface of your desk Throw away pens that don’t work Sharpen pencils Throw out all the trash Put items to keep in a pending file for Wednesday (desk day) Do not stop to pay bills Straighten one drawer at a time Toss out old receipts from over 7 years Clean off the monitor screen Fill printer caddy with paper Establish a place for current bills Vacuum under desk and the whole room Dust furniture Clean windows Remove cobwebs Check supplies of paper and printer cartridges Stamps and envelopes Laundry room detailed cleaning list Wipe down the top of the washer and dryer Clean the gunk from under the washer lid Throw out empty bottles and boxes Empty the garbage can Check supplies of laundry detergent, softener, spot remover Sweep and mop the floor Remove the cobwebs Put away all clothes Look behind appliances for odd socks
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Post by farmchix on Nov 20, 2016 10:19:34 GMT
Part of the cleaning today entails the garage. We had part of the floor re-poured in concrete and Hubs shoved everything right in my way. Guess that is enough evidence that I really need to get some of that stuff put away!
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Post by manygoatsnmore on Nov 24, 2016 7:17:12 GMT
I'm slowly taming the living room again. I would like to come home to a relatively neat and tidy home, and having all the stuff that is still sitting in the living room waiting to go to the shipping container out of here would be great, but it's storming outside and isn't forecast to stop all day tomorrow. At least all the laundry and dishes are done, and the dinner for tomorrow will be very easy, so not much cleanup to do.
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Post by stickinthemud on Nov 26, 2016 21:08:35 GMT
MTM, Thank you so much for this link BUT monogrammed magnolias.com "domain name expired on 11/20/2016 and is pending renewal or deletion". Nothing there but Go Daddy ads. Maybe they will renew it & it'll be back?? Meanwhile, I tracked down the list elsewhere: 247moms.com/2016/06/free-60-things-to-toss-out-in-the-next-60-days-printable/Doesn't it always happen--you get a chance to settle down & organize and wind up spending half the afternoon on the computer! |
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Post by midtnmama on Nov 28, 2016 0:12:29 GMT
Week of November 27: Living room
Spend 15 minutes each day decluttering and cleaning the living room. If you have decluttered in this room already or have finished decluttering, proceed to the detailed cleaning below:
Living Room/Family Room/Den Detailed Cleaning List
Clean cobwebs
Clean windows
Straighten bookcases
Wash ornaments and knick-knacks
Clean out end table
Straighten closets/ drawers
Wipe fingerprints from walls
Polish furniture
Clean out magazine racks
Clean phone
Clean under cushions
Clean out fireplace
Move furniture and vacuum
Shampoo carpet
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