30 days to clean - A success!

Well, my house is clean and it only took 30 days to do it. Now the challenge will be keeping it that way. Winston Churchill once said: "Success is not final, Failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts."

My maintenance plan is simple. Each day of the week I have assigned a room or area of the house.

Monday - bathrooms

Tuesday - dining room / Living room

Wednesday- mop the floors

Thursday- Kitchen (obviously dishes will be done daily. This day is for clearing clutter off of the counters, cleaning out the fridge etc.)

Friday- Toyroom

Saturday - bedrooms / laundry day

Sunday - Rest, family fun day



Now I will be flexible on this to a point. For example if I come home from work on Tuesday and I just am tired and don't feel like doing anything I can double up on Wednesday or if we want to go to the Zoo on Saturday I can do the bedrooms on Friday and Sunday etc..



September is going to be my 30 days to organization so I will be doing a little mini project each day on top of the cleaning.

Ya know how most people have a "junk drawer" in their house? Yeah, well I have hmmm, roughly....five or six.

This month I want to give my "junk drawers" a purpose and a meaning in life.

I would like to organize my garage too but I might save that for another month when it's not so hot. Maybe October would be a better month for this.

30 days to clean - Pictures of my bedroom!

I thought this day would never arrive! It seemed as though my bedroom was a never ending black hole of clutter. It seemed like cleaning my bedroom was some torture that Al Qa'ida had thought up. "hahahaha, she'll just clean forever and ever and it will never be clean, there will always be boxes full of clothes and other random items that she wants to keep but doesn't know what to do with" (I guess they speak in run-on sentences too.)

Can you see the overflowing boxes, the hastily hung curtain on the window, and the tables covered with clutter? By the way, don't you just love how I made the bed before taking my "before" pictures? I think it really accentuates the clutter.

Now for what you've all been waiting for.....

I give you my new bedroom!

Look I can close my closet doors!

Look at that smile!
She is so glad to be done!

Not only is it clean but Matt hung some new curtains for me. (thanks Matt!) Well, that doesn't sound too impressive, let me explain...there was no way to hang curtains so he had to get out power tools and install curtain rods on the windows before he could hang the curtains.

So on day 26 I finished my bedroom. I've got 4 days to go and my house is clean. The toyroom could still use some tweaking. It's not quite worthy of before and after pictures yet. But, when is a toyroom ever clean when you've got a three year old and a one year old there to help you keep it messy?! I'll still post before and afters of the toyroom in the next couple days.

30 days to clean - Before and After Pics of the Living room

The living room has been clean for a while but I realized last night that I hadn't put pics up yet. This first picture is of all the laundry I had to fold the first night of cleaning the living room. Luckily Matt helped with that. I don't even know how many loads this is.

The messy living room!

This is a place where things seem to congregate. They are things that had no home, well, they do now!


Tada!! my clean living room!



Now, if I could get some new furniture.....

30 days to clean - Day 18

I can't tell you how pleased I am with my progress so far. My house has never been this clean and I hope that I can keep it up. I have done really well (with the help of my awesome husband) at maintaining the cleanliness. Monday night I mowed the lawn and was too tired to do any housework and last night I came this close (I'm holding my fingers very close together by the way) to finishing my bedroom. I have a laundry basket and a rubbermaid container that are filled with things that still have no home. Tonight I plan on mopping the whole house (minus the kids' rooms) and then I may conquer the cluttered computer desk in the dining room. I think I may finally paint the kitchen this weekend if I can get some primer put on the walls one night. I might just end up priming the walls this weekend. We'll play it by ear. That's what I do. That's the way uh huh uh huh, I like it, uh huh uh huh.

Anyway, my month of August has been such a success thus far that I think that the month of September is going to be 30 days to organization.....more to come on that later!

Some pictures of my progress

In my house when the cabinet looks like this

The dishwasher looks like this:

and the sink looks like this

You'd better take a picture cuz it won't last very long!

here are some before and after pictures of my kitchen:

I think that the word on the dish-soap bottle best describes my feelings right now.

30 days to clean - Update

Some of my adoring fans have implored me to update my blog. The cleaning is going well. Over the weekend I cleaned the kids' rooms again although they really didn't need it, I decided that I need to get in the habit of cleaning even if I don't think it needs to be done. I changed the sheets on their beds, emptied their trash cans and swept the floors. After that I worked on my bedroom more which I think I have a good chance of finishing this weekend!! (fingers crossed) On Monday I cleaned the bathrooms, especially concentrating on the bathroom in my bedroom and it looks awesome. It's very small so it gets cluttered very easily. it is now clutter free. On Tuesday I organized the bookshelf in the dining room. I should take a picture of it for you to see. I didn't do anything the last 2 nights. Last night I did not feel well so I watched a movie (7 Pounds with Will Smith, I would recommend it) and Wednesday night I spent some time with Matt. I thought that I deserved a night off from cleaning. I pick back up this afternoon as I need to clean my kitchen.

I have a friend coming over tonight and I am very excited. I have not had a friend over in a long time (not counting my family). I honestly have avoided inviting anyone to my house because I have been embarrassed of the mess. Now that my house is looking good I can invite people over without being worried. I love this feeling!

Day 5 - Living Room

So You Think You Can Dance was on last night so I cleaned the living room while watching. Cleaning the living room also involved folding a weeks worth of laundry which Matt did most of (thanks!) I did not finish but I came very close. I believe that it will be clean next Wednesday. I thought about finishing it tonight but Matt thought it would be best for me to stick to my schedule so, tonight I conquer the toyroom!

Day 4 - Dining Room

I seriously debated whether I should even put this "before" picture on here. I mean, to me, when I look at this picture it screams slob! but I decided to post it anyway because I'm sure that there is at least one person who will see this picture and feel better about their house because theirs' has never looked this bad or maybe it does and they will feel like they are not alone in this world.

My dining room table is a "catch-all" seriously, if there is something that needs to be set somewhere the dining room table is the place to be.

Let's play hidden picture: in this picture, mail, paint, a purse, a box, zucchini and tomatoes from my garden, a cup, and a non matching set of salt and pepper shakers. We also have things that end up under the table. Can you see now why the clutter stresses me out? Well anyway, lets move on:

Before:

After:

ahhh that's better!

I still have a lot of work to do on this room. The desk and bookshelf for starters but this is why I gave myself 30 days to clean my house and not 7. Capiche?

Day 3 - Bathrooms and some other notes

Last night I spent an hour cleaning and only got one bathroom cleaned. I thoroughly cleaned it though and it looks really good. Tonight I conquer the dining room. I plan on posting before and after pics of the dining room tomorrow. (I didn't today because I just don't think a bathroom is very exciting :))

In other notes I just want to write some things down for posterity sake because I know I'll never write them in the baby books and in a couple years I'll forget all the cute things my kids say and do. So bear with me as I gush over my children or stop reading.

Zoe is such a joy to my heart. She always is so excited to see me, or Matt, or Henry or food. She claps her hands and squeals with delight. She has a fish thing in her crib that attaches to the rails. She shows it to me every day when I go in to get her. She will go from standing to sitting, mumble something in baby talk, turn it on, look up at me with a big smile and clap her hands. Last night she was pushing a step stool around the house and walking on her knees. She just went up and down the hall....probably doesn't sound cute to you (if you're still reading) but I loved it!

Henry is not three yet but he has entered the "trying threes" He tests the limits daily and it's so hard to be consistant with him. Yesterday he told Matt that he was going to take all his toys and put them on his pirate ship and sail away from here. When he saw that this upset Matt he told him "you can come with me daddy". On the other hand he can be such a sweet, funny boy too and this describes him the majority of the time. He has lately been obsessed with sharks and pirates. He also has made up a song about sharks, and yesterday made up a song about going to sleep. Do we have a future songwriter on our hands? Time will tell I suppose.

If you have read this far then you must really like me... :)

Day 2 - My bedroom

It's amazing how neglected my bedroom is. It's the one room that I don't ever clean because I don't have to. When I have people come over to my house they don't go in my bedroom. I use my bedroom for sleeping and that's about it. I wish that my bedroom could be a sort of sanctuary where I could go to relax and feel at peace. Instead I feel stressed every time I go in there because of all the stuff. I still have boxes in there from when we moved in over a year ago! My goal at the end of this month is of course to have a clean house but the room I am most looking forward to being finished is my bedroom.

That being said, I did not finish my bedroom yesterday. I knew that I wouldn't, so no big disappointment there. I worked on it for 2 hours and got the closet organized and a couple boxes cleared out. I can't wait until I can post after pictures from that room.

Day 3's assignment is the bathrooms. Not very exciting but necessary! The biggest thing in our main bathroom is the clutter that collects on the counter. It's amazing how good an empty bathroom counter can make the rest of the bathroom look.

Day 1 - cleaning the kids' rooms

Day One was a success! I feel like I accomplished so much!

This is what Zoe's room looked like this morning (I'm turning my head away and blushing because I am so embarrassed!)

oh, what? you can't see it good?

how about now? (cue the "Psycho" music)

Are you happy now?

And now this is what it looks like

(cue the "Hallelujah Chorus") "Hallelujah!"

Hallelujah!

Hallelujah!

Hallelujah!

Ha - le- eh- lu- yah!

I also cleaned Henry's room. I didn't bother taking before pics of his because it wasn't that bad to begin with but here are some after pics. I rearranged his furniture and I think it gives him more room to play.

Look! nothing under the bed!!

So all in all a success! Tomorrow I tackle my bedroom but I won't have nearly as much time to work in there tomorrow as I did today so I don't foresee me finishing that room this week. (hey, I've got 30 days, get off my back dude!)

30 days to clean!

(This is not my house...let us be clear!)

I am coming up with a plan to clean and organize my house. I hate the clutter. I envy people whose houses are spic and span at any given moment. When the space around me is clean and organized I have inner peace and tranquility. I feel happy and I can breathe easier. I have never been a good cleaner. Even as a child, my room was always a mess, I think I was born to be disorganized. I know that spending time with my kids and my husband is the most important thing so usually I forgo cleaning to spend time with them. In my mind this plan is going to let me do both, clean house / quality time with my family. So I figured I would blog about my journey to organization.

My plan is this: each day spend an hour (after the kids go to bed during the week) cleaning one room of the house. I have already commissioned my husband to do the dishes every day for me so that I will not have to bother with that every day.

Saturday I start. Why, you may ask? because it is the first of the month and it seemed like a good day to start. Of course, since Saturday is my day off I may try to spend more than just one hour cleaning, besides, I am planning on cleaning Zoe and Henry's rooms on Saturday which is going to be a task!

Poor Zoe's bedroom is full of boxes of baby clothes that are either too big or too small for her and I need to put them somewhere else. I want her bedroom to be her space, not a storage room with a crib! I worked so hard painting her mural and decorating in there and I can't even enjoy it because boxes are everywhere!

I will post before and after pics each day (this is going to be very humbling). Keep your fingers crossed for me that I can pull this off! Maybe I'll inspire someone else to clean along with me!