Changes to my "Lucy Plan"

I have made some progress on my intense-cleaning plan, but I most defiantly have been derailed by the end of school, summer vacation, and my (almost over) job. However, this week is my last week to work as the job ends June 30th, so I have a modified plan in motion. So far it has worked well. ...but it has been only one day!

My new plan involves the kids. Together we are going to clean their rooms and areas where they significantly contribute to the overall mess and clutter of the house. This means that we are spending 30 mins each morning before we do anything else working on an agreed upon area.

Two days ago I sat down with them while they were happily munching a snack (and it might have even been candy, but my memory is fuzzy on the exact details) and told them that we were going to spend 30 mins each morning cleaning and doing chores before we did anything else. They were receptive to the idea - Hallelujah! I then wrote down a list for each girl, dictated by them, on what part of their room they wanted to work on and in what order. I reminded them last night too, so that they would not feel ambushed this morning. So far so good. We'll see how day 3 & 4 go!

Today Annika cleaned up her bookcase. I know, it is not much of an effort, but it is a start! It took her about 20 mins to dust and straighten out the books. We also cleaned up the area in front of it. (and right now both kids came to me and said they were hungry ... because they have been working for an hour cleaning. yea, right! They did work, but to be hungry already? less than 2 hrs after a large nutritious breakfast?) Lauren wanted to tackle her chest of drawers, and that took her quite a long time, but in her defence, I was helping Annika first. And we pulled out the chest and vacuumed behind it ... which she did herself and felt quite proud of her accomplishments. Again, we'll see how this lasts.

As for me ... I was able to do my 30 mins in our room before the kids even woke up. But I do need to continue on with the mudroom. It has been so long that most of my earlier work has been negated already. And then my desk area is slowly cluttering up too. But hopefully after this job is done I will not have as many odds and ends to keep track of.

Onward Ho, Lucy!

The Beginning

I cleaned up the mudroom floor today; 20 pairs of shoes and 4 pairs of boots were removed from our floor! *I* had the fewest pairs, and I was the only one not wearing yet another pair of shoes. However, I took 5 purses, three bags, and two coats off the hooks - and those were ALL mine.

I also told everyone that sometime this week they would have to take everything out of their cubbie and clean it out. Luckily it is almost the end of school, so the girls will not be adding more and more stuff to their cubbies each day! You'd think that was all part of my master plan ... wait until school was out to tackle this room. You could think that, and I'll let you, but you'd be wrong. Its just luck.

Decluttering the Mud Room

Take a deep breath, because this looks pretty bad! Are you ready for what I am currently tackling? I would like to finish it by the Sunday, but it is a busy week, so we'll see. This is a lot of work, and there is one cubby full of junk for each family member. I may just take everything out, put it in a box (one for each member) and let them deal with the contents.

See ya next week for the results!

A Clean Office

I did it! I met my deadline of finishing the Oval Office by Sunday! Whew! This first venture into "joint" cleaning and organizing has been rewarding and frustrating! I have decided that I am Lucy to my friend's Ethel; she agreed to go along with some of my wacky ideas!! There were moments that I questioned myself, but ultimately I am very glad I plowed through frustration and the likes thereof.

The results, you ask:

The previously cluttered floor in front of the shelves, now barren!

The bookshelf is organized, neat, and clean! I am not sure about the odd grouping of plants on the top - when we put these shelves in last year I envisioned plants on the top, but just never got around to putting any up there. And, believe it or not, I really do not have many plants in this house. I think I was too busy nurturing young kids, and had no energy left for the plants. I am starting to feel I need more green in the house, so I may soon-ish have plants up there.

I was challenged by part of the bottom area of the shelving, as I use it for storing some of my "office work" stuff. I have different papers, envelopes, notebooks, and even some odd shaped stuff for girl scouts or whatever project I am currently working on. I may go out and purchase something more attractive than the white plastic drawers, but for now it works and I was very happy that I did not have to purchase anything!

The piano is clean! No dust or extraneous items on it.

The desk is clean and decluttered. I have a small "in-box" to store some items I am currently working on, or need to grab for a meeting etc. Other than that there are no "things" on my desk and I intend to keep it that way!

I painted the window trim, washed the screens and put them back in, and I even washed the window treatments and re-hung them. Harder to do than I thought; this simple treatment really confused me! Yesterday, however, was nice and I was able to hang the curtains on the line, which was really nice!

Finally, I washed the carpet and was done! Well, I am bothered by this little area rug we have squeezed between the desk chair and piano bench. I love the rug, but it was a cheap Walmart purchase from when Bill and I lived in Dublin, so 8-9 years ago. And it WILL NOT stay in place. I walked over it once or twice and it bunched up like this. I am seriously contemplating removing it. I actually would kinda like to put in on our front porch, but rain would ruin it. So, who knows.

Anyway, I finished the Oval Office and am now on to the next project: The mud room. Ouy Vay

It Gets Worse First

When deep cleaning things always get worse before they get better, right? The view today (above) after the view last night:

Yesterday I made really good progress on the office. I cleaned up the floor in front of the bookcase. (full of stuff again - but the piles are trash, donate, move downstairs, and move to the kids bookcase.)

I even cleaned up the desk area quite a bit before calling it quits for the day yesterday. This was about 4 hours of work, believe it or not. I had a lot of stuff to go through piece by piece!

And today I tackled the pile on my desk (still have some to go on that) and the bookcase. Everything came off and was gone through. I listed some books on paperback swap, decided to donate some books that have been on there for more than a year, and organized and cleaned the entire bookcase! Another 4 hours of fun!

Hopefully Sunday I will have it all finished and ready to show. Bill is impressed. Annika said last night, "I don't see any organization!" Pfttt.....

Hitting the Grindstone

A long distance friend and I have decided to become each other's Cleaning/Decluttering Motivators. This is rather like a work-out buddy, but it is a cleaning-buddy instead. Neither one of us are great "neat freaks" so motivation and accountability is a good thing!

She is currently working on her home office, so I figured I'd join her. We actually have two "office" areas, one on the mail level and one in the basement. Both need work (of course!) but I thought I'd tackle the main level room, what we refer to as the Oval Office due to its shape, first off.

I've decided to divide the room into four main sections:

#1: I have a bunch of stuff on the floor in front of the bookcase- mostly girl scout stuff that needs to find an appropriate home, especially since GS is basically over now.

#2: The desk, which is a repository for all things being worked on. I actually have tidied this up a bit recently. Would you believe it?

#3: The desk drawers. There are things in here that I know not where they are! It is tough when you share your desk area with the rest of the family! This part will be tough for me to tackle!

#4: The bookcase - which needs to be dusted well, and the bottom part needs to be re-organized, nay, organized. It will give me a chance to cull some kids books and put some of the spring/summer topics back in the kids rooms.

#4: General dusting and cleaning. The piano is not so cluttered - a small stack of extra photos was set there last week when I tidied up my desk area, but that is it besides the dust ... can you see my finger mark in the dust? I'll also wash the carpeting and lights, oh, and add another part:

#5: paint the window trim.

So there you have it. Maybe I can accomplish it all by the end of this weekend? OK, I will commit to having it all accomplished by Sunday. Scary!