My Not So Little Project

Some of my fellow bloggers have lit a spark under my lazy ass. I often dream of a pristine home with organized closets and cabinets. Right now, I'm frustrated with the amount of unused crap I come across when I'm looking for something I actually need. Johanna at Losing Sanity just recently cleaned out and organized her fridge as part of her Fulfillment Project. Also this week, MommyBags wrote the Urge to Purge post. Now, I'm in a "Get Rid of Everything" mood and I plan on taking full advantage of it. I don't expect my home to be pristine, but it would be nice if it were clean enough on a day-to-day basis that I wouldn't be embarrassed when someone stopped by unannounced. So, I'm going to start acting like a real adult. I have no idea why being a "real adult" to me means a clean house. I know plenty of real adults whose houses aren't clean... but.. Anyway...

I'm going to get my house clean and keep it clean. One room at a time, I am going to purge and clean and I have it all planned out. It starts tonight... after work... because if I don't do it and get that sense of accomplishment now, the motivation will be gone when I wake up tomorrow.

Here's the plan: 1 Room a day. Saturdays and Sundays are mandatory. Friday night if I don't have plans. Weekdays if I feel the urge, but I plan on using the weekdays to keep on top of the rooms I've already finished.

For each room, I will do the following:

1. Go through everything. Throw out/ give away everything I don't use or want.
2. Re-organize the stuff I'm keeping
3. Clean all surfaces including marks on walls and baseboards.
4. Make a list of daily, weekly, bi-weekly and monthly tasks to keep the room clean and orderly.
5. Put the tasks from #4 on a calendar. Hopefully the scheduling will make it so I won't end up doing a lot of labor intensive jobs on any one given day.

Of course there's going to be a bit of catch up for the next few weeks. Doing one room a day will prevent me from spending my entire weekend cleaning. Luckily, I have my crap spread throughout the house. Each room shouldn't take more that a couple hours since I expect most of it will be going into a trash bag.

This weekend the plan is to clean the kitchen, dining room & living room (all at once since it's one big space) and master suite including the master bath and powder room. Also, get caught up on my laundry... well... mostly caught up. Caught up enough that the hamper has room for next week's clothes without over flowing.

I am really excited to get rid of all the crap in my house that's been sitting in boxes since we moved. The main living areas should be done in about three weekends. I'll be able to start the holidays with a nice, happy, peaceful, clean house. YAY!!