Cleaning and organizing thread - September 2018

[midtnmama]

I'm a little late....Please don't feel you have to follow the flylady tasks, just post what you have accomplished, what you want to do. Let's help encourage one another....

Do the ten min missions daily then move onto the deep cleaning:
Mon: Throw away trash, old perfume bottles on your dresser, old mail, etc.
Tues:Make a box for things to donate from these rooms
Wed:Dust all furniture, the lamps and the decorative items
Thurs:Change your sheets
Fri: Get your favorite pjs ready to sleep in tonight (I'll sub: working on matching socks, putting unmatched ones into the rag box)

Master Bathroom Detailed Cleaning List



Wash area rugs

Straighten up makeup

Straighten drawer cabinets

Clean shower/stall demold

Wash shower doors

Master Bedroom Detail Cleaning List



Polish Furniture

Clean off the desks

Clean cobwebs

Wash mattress pad/dust ruffle

Flip mattress

Empty trash

Wash windows

Cull some books from bookcase

Straighten drawers

Clean under the bed

Closet Detailed Cleaning List



Straighten the top shelves

Arrange the shoes

Take Suitcases to basement

Dust shoe bookcase

[susannah]

The basement reorganization is still ongoing. Since buying this place, we installed hardwood floors in all the bedrooms, the living room/kitchen, and the mudroom. As a result, we ended up with lots of leftover wood flooring. This got particularly out of hand when we did the mudroom, and many of the boards were damaged when we got them. The wood products store gave us more replacements than we needed (as well as some money off what we paid) so we had a bunch of unusable floor boards as well as the spare ones.

Well, by the time we finished replacing all the flooring in this house, the area under the basement stairs was no longer available to store things; it was literally filled with odds and ends of wood flooring. We wanted to keep some of it, sure, for patching in a replacement board if necessary. We went through and kept several of each size and wood type and put those back under the stairs. The rest of the boards - many of which weren't usable; why did we keep them? - are in the garage now, and will be used in "building projects" that our grandson wants to do any time he's up here, or as very expensive firewood (well, not expensive to us since we got replacement boards). Meanwhile, there is now a TON of space for storing the items we'd been unable to find room to store. The basement is really, REALLY looking good.

[midtnmama]

Thank you for posting this, susannah, I can picture how clean and organized everything looks. I am behind on things due to tons of overtime.

I bought a new swiffer but use rags (soft sweatshirts, for example) to dry mop the hardwood and tile floors. I dampen them just a bit and they pick up more dirt.

This weekend I hope to clean all or at least some of the frig. Tough to do when you have a lot of garden produce to put up that's waiting in the frig.

[solargeek]

This last week although we had tons of 'bringing in the harvest and processing it" going on, I defrosted our large stand up deep freeze in the basement (all meat/seafood/soups) Thursday, and Friday did the same thing with the upstairs deep freeze (for fruits/vegetables/baking supplies). Whoosh heavy cold work. Washing out all the containers on each shelf, washing the whole deep freeze, then carefully sorting and reassembling the food on each designated shelf (beef/seafood/pork&chicken/soups and then similarly for the upper deep freeze.

But everything is visible (for now...) and I can bring in the last of the harvest at the middle to end of October and have room.

Wednesday I tore apart MBR bureau drawers and cleaned/sorted/ all the items in them (not clothing drawers) and tossed a ton. Also did the very full nightstand drawers.
Of course it will be hard to 'find' things now properly placed after knowing their misplaced location for so long.....

[feather]

I organized my email, I get hotmail into my outlook application. I sort by names, delete all the marketing and job stuff, archive with personal files the friends and accounts info, then delete everything from the basic hotmail. Same with deleting everything from yahoo.

Then, to simplify further, unsubscribe from every marketing thing that comes in. So if I get email, it might actually mean something to me.

I deleted facebook months ago, and I have two forums I like with like minded people. Simplify simplify, simplify.

[Maura]

So, I really really need to clean out the pole barn. It is 24 x 24 and used to house winter hay. When I split with DH it had/has two push lawnmowers, a big lawn cart, a wheelbarrow, pony cart, ladders, wood, etc. etc.

Well, I've been putting stuff at the road for people to pick over and not only got rid of stuff, but had people coming up the drive and asking for more. Got rid of electric net fencing that way, the the lawn cart, small chicken coop, plastic tarps, chicken feed, two rabbit cages, and more. Waiting for neighbor to come with a pick up and get the skeleton of a lovely greenhouse and stacks of wood.

It's nice to have help getting rid of "useful and cool stuff".

[midtnmama]

Maura: The outside buildings and garage are certainly included in the purpose of this thread!

I cross-posted this in the tightwad tips thread:
I refilled my shower scrubber with a solution of 1/2 dawn dish detergent and vinegar. The dawn container still had some stuck to it so I swished it with vinegar and added to the scrubbers. It STILL had a little bit stuck in it so I put in the bathroom sink with warm water to use for cleaning the surfaces of the bathroom with rags.

I'll have a clean and shiny bathroom today!!

I've been working a little each week on trimming trees and bushes. I guess I have weak arms because I can only do a little at a time. Note to self: More focus on upper body!

I have a nice collection of homesteading magazines that I will give in groups of 10 to my son in law who shares my interest along with his Christmas and Birthday presents. My motherinlaw love to read and had/has tons of craft/cooking books. Each year we are given a gift of picking anything from her collection. She then signs the book for us and mentions the occasion.