View Full Version : Operation Home
Since I will be laid off for a little while, I decided to focus my efforts on cleaning and organizing my home. Quite frankly, it is kind of a mess. :|( It is hard to work and care for a baby and stay on top of everything. Now that I am in my second trimester and feeling a little better, I figure I might as well spend my time nesting. :-) So I am going to give each room a good cleaning and try to declutter.
Anyone want to join? I know it is a busy time of year and will understand if no one does. Just thought it might be motivating to have a buddy. :-)
Between now and Christmas, everything (in our house) is an all-out blur, however, if you are still up for the challenge in the New Year, I'll be glad to join you then, Kat! I even have a few projects in mind that I'd like to tackle and that would fit in nicely with your request! How's that for pre-planning? :)
January is always my month for focusing on the home as well. I'll join you then.
Gardenarian
12-3-12, 9:00pm
I'll join in! I am doing blitz cleaning and organizing, but not in any systematic fashion. I hope this will give me a needed kick in the pants now and then!
chrisgermany
12-4-12, 4:37am
You may want to read this room by room and step by step approach of home cleaning:
http://www.wisebread.com/fall-cleaning-101-the-spic-and-span-basics-of-making-your-home-sparkle
Wildflower
12-4-12, 4:41am
I would be happy to join you in January! :) Right now all efforts are being made to get ready for Christmas.
Thanks, everyone! :-)
I will (I hope) be back to work after the first week of January, so I won't be able to participate much then. BUT I see no reason why we can't share tips and cheer each other on both now and then! A clean and organized home is (at least for me) a great feeling. It is especially wonderful when it comes at the beginning of the year--new year, fresh start!
I think I will start with my kitchen. I need to deep clean appliances and declutter my ridiculous collection of spices. My bedroom is also near the top of the list. Gardenarian--what are you currently working on?
chrisgermany, thanks so much for posting that article. I love Wise Bread and will make an effort to check out the link you provided. :-)
I have been pecking away at various projects around the house lately too.
I have a page long ToDo list of special projects.
Housekeeping is NOT my long suit.
For routine cleaning I made up this little acronym for myself:
Monday Mop (one week upstairs, one week downstairs)
Tuesday Toilets (full clean bathrooms)
Wednesday Wash (get all clothes put away and laundry caught up)
Thursday Three (Pick Three rooms for intensive straighten/clean, quick dust, etc)
Friday Floors (Sweep/Vacuum up & down. We have a dog, so staying on top of the dog hairs is pretty constant)
Everyday is Dishes (and Kitchen Straight).
Weekend Warrior (one project over Sat/Sun...more if I'm feeling super spunky)
Seriously, my housekeeping is weak... so this has helped me not get overwhelmed and each day is DOABLE for me.
When I was young and had a young very busy family and a full time job and full time grad school, I discovered the Side-tracked Home Executives, who have since apparently morphed into FlyLady. Anyway, I used their "tickler" file for organizing housework and menus and it was quite useful. I quit obsessing about what had to be done and just did what was on the card for the day and that worked great, much like mtnlaurel's method. Over time most of the daily chores fell off the list because they became second nature and no trouble, and of course my kids grew up and my life changed and so forth, but having that help to organize was great.
Now I need help to organize myself in some other ways. Household chores get done, mostly, but I have let some stuff accumulate since we added on to the house and have a bit more room. Also I don't have my paperwork in hand. So I am going to focus on a couple of things: clearing space (again or still or more or something like that) and getting on top of paperwork. I am self employed and really MUST have my papers in good order. In the new year, I would like to have all of our stuff organized so that if we should disappear off the face of the earth, my son and DH's sister, who are executors of our wills should we both die, would not have any struggle to figure stuff out.
That seems a good organizational aspiration for me.
shadowmoss
12-7-12, 9:33am
A site that has detailed directions for getting important papers in order to be ready for any disaster is: http://www.theplacewithnoname.com/blogs/klessons/
He details his family's experience with Katrina, and in the process tells what he has done now to lessen the ramifications of going through another disaster and put it into worksheets. Of course, I've loved this site for many years and still haven't done the worksheets. A few of the things are a bit out of date in that there are more efficient ways to save the information (cloud computing, for one), but the basics still apply. Also takes into consideration young children and how to outfit them with just enough information to have them found if they are separated from you.
Between that site and the Big Book of Everything, I have no excuse not to have my 'affairs' in order.
mtnlaurel--I like your routine. Sounds very do-able.
shadowmoss--great idea about getting important papers safe and in order. That is something I have been meaning to do, along with preparing a home inventory.
Mrs. B. posted a great challenge over in the challenge thread along with a great link. I really like the website she linked to; it breaks up a huge task into smaller, more manageable ones. I might try doing something like that. I will be back to work soon, so I will have less time then. But I haven't gotten too much done lately, either, because I have been sick. So I have the rest of the month to get started. One thing I am thinking about doing is keeping a master declutter list and then, after I finish each room, going ahead and buying the things I need to keep it up. Things like a small ironing board and ironing cabinet, for example.
Go Kat!
I've spent all morning and most of the afternoon today dismantling furniture and packing boxes, in preparation for my big move to NY. i've made some pretty brutal 'cuts' to my invetory of possessions, throwing out and donating quite a bit of stuff... If I had a baby to look after I doubt I would have got anything done at all, though - I don't have any kids, but y girlfriend has two and it amazes me that anyone with young children can get anything done around the house - parenting it a full-time job with no breaks...
Hugs,
Lucas
Gardenarian
12-13-12, 7:53pm
Okay, the inside of the house is too scary right now so I cleared out the shed and most of the yard clutter. They hauled it away with the trash today!
Now....inside.
try2bfrugal
12-13-12, 10:51pm
I have been sorting and shredding old papers and just looking for a few items to get rid of each day. I have a box in the bedroom of stuff to go to Goodwill, old batteries and packing peanuts to be recycled, etc.
Today I disposed of some hand lotion of unknown vintage. This week I disassembled some terrarium fails. I have the containers rinsed and set to go back to Goodwill from whence they came.
We have solar string lights out front for the holidays and they work and look great. I want to get a small, potted live tree with LED lights for inside and then donate the artificial tree and all the tree and house decorations accumulated form past years.
I love these threads. You guys are all great inspirations. Good luck with your personal projects.
Thanks, Lucas, for your kind and motivating words. I definitely do have days where I feel like I can't get anything done. But then I remind myself that DD is only little once and that I should cherish the time I have with her instead of worrying about the dishwasher getting emptied. I've also been following your minimalist journey thread and find it very interesting. :-)
Gardenarian and try2bfrugal--you are both making great strides! Nice work!
I spent some time in the master bedroom today. DD decided she wasn't going to nap, so she was in there with me. She pretty much followed me around, undoing whatever I had just done. LOL So it doesn't look a whole lot better in there, but I did manage to purge a coat, 2 magazines, a book, and 18 maternity pieces from my friend that I will not be wearing due to stains, wrong size, etc. So 22 items gone, along with a bag of garbage. Not a terrible start. I will have to see about continuing this weekend while DH is around.
One thing that I am learning is that, even though my house is a fixer upper and not perfect, and even though we have plans to expand/repair/re-do in the future, there is no reason that my home can't be lovely now. Sometimes I get stuck in that "Well, we're hoping to build a bigger bedroom in 6 years, so I'll just make do until then." Well...what if we decide not to add on? Or even if we do...why wait? Why shouldn't we strive to make our bedroom a haven now? Why shouldn't DH and I have a nice, quiet place to retire to now? We are worth it. I am not saying we need to spend a lot of money, but I think some paint and some bedding that matches might be something worth buying in the future.
I'm in! With 5 little kids running around, it's pretty much always Operation Home around here, but it's fun to share.
Zach built me bookshelves for the family room/homeschool room, which kind of revolutionized my storage. First, I moved a bunch of homeschool stuff to the new shelves, then I realized that I had oodles of space freed up on other shelves and spent the rest of the week figuring out how to rearrange things. I actually really enjoy that.
Kat, I messaged you with this blog, but maybe others would get something out of it too. It's written by a Catholic grandma with 7 kids (and occasionally her daughters), so she's realistic about housework and children and she's pretty frugal. I really enjoyed her Reasonably Clean House Series. (http://ourmothersdaughters.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Reasonably%20Clean%20House)
Thanks for the link, Stella! That is a great site!
Spent a few more minutes in the bedroom this morning. Purged 2 sheets and 2 pillowcases that were very worn. Also found an empty bottle of medication in DH's nightstand. Sent that packin', too! 27 items gone.
My closet is driving me crazy right now because I have both maternity clothes and pre-pregnancy clothes jammed in there (it's only a small reach-in closet). Not much I can do about that, though. I don't have anywhere else to store them and need to keep both for now. I think I will really comb through them, though, and let go of some things I am not overly fond of. I figure if I didn't like the way I looked or felt in something when I was at my goal weight, I probably never will.
iris lily
12-18-12, 3:02pm
Today I don't feel well, didn't go in to work, and am ironing tablecloths and napkins as a low level activity to make things neat and organized. Will take stock of tablecloths and will throw out those that are stained beyond help.
Iris, I've come to enjoy ironing lately. I was thinking, as I was ironing dishcloths the other day, that I should call my Grandma and thank her for teaching me how to iron in spite of my violent protestations. I mean, just as someone who does sewing and embroidery, that's been a useful skill, beyond the household stuff.
I've been keeping things in pretty decent shape lately, especially considering I spent the first week of this month convalescing and I've had Christmas stuff to attend to. I mean, I would want 10 minutes notice if someone were coming over so we could tidy, but I'd have it in OK shape in 10 minutes, so I'm happy with that.
Today was all kitchen work. Lots of cooking and tonight, the candy making, but I'm also working on a pretty cross-stitch runner for my table. I bought it for $1 at the thrift store, half done, but with the pattern printed on the linen. I found the matching purple threads in my thread basket, so it will be a nice thing to do in my downtime.
Tussiemussies
12-19-12, 4:44pm
Iris, I've come to enjoy ironing lately. I was thinking, as I was ironing dishcloths the other day, that I should call my Grandma and thank her for teaching me how to iron in spite of my violent protestations. I mean, just as someone who does sewing and embroidery, that's been a useful skill, beyond the household stuff.
I've been keeping things in pretty decent shape lately, especially considering I spent the first week of this month convalescing and I've had Christmas stuff to attend to. I mean, I would want 10 minutes notice if someone were coming over so we could tidy, but I'd have it in OK shape in 10 minutes, so I'm happy with that.
Today was all kitchen work. Lots of cooking and tonight, the candy making, but I'm also working on a pretty cross-stitch runner for my table. I bought it for $1 at the thrift store, half done, but with the pattern printed on the linen. I found the matching purple threads in my thread basket, so it will be a nice thing to do in my downtime.
Glad you are starting to feel better and I love anything embroidered so a table runner sounds really pretty to me!
Gardenarian
12-19-12, 7:14pm
I got everything up off the floor and vacuumed and washed the floors yesterday. Now I have to deal with all the piles I made!
I know it's backwards to start with the floors but that's how I do it.
Well, I haven't gotten as much done as I had hoped. I underestimated how tiring the Christmas festivities would be, I guess! I did purge 9 little-used/expired spices along with 2 gift bags. I also returned an air mattress and GPS to my MIL, so that is 40 items gone. I have also been thinking about doing some re-arranging in the kitchen to make better use of the space.
The biggest thing is that I ordered a closet organization system for the master bedroom closet. It is a small reach-in closet, but we don't have a lot of stuff, so it should, in theory, be sufficient. The problem is that the existing bars and shelves are horribly placed and do not make good use of the space at all. There is a lot of dead, wasted space, and I can't reach the shelves. I am tired of being frustrated every time I try to put clothes away! So I spent my Christmas money on an organization system with a much better design. We should have a place for everything now, and it will be pleasant to look at, too. Can't wait to get it installed so that I can quit tripping over things and trying to jam another shirt in a small rack that is already too full. As a bonus, there won't be anymore boxes on the floor containing DH's work clothes. They will be put away, too, so DD won't dump them out and unfold them all the time! Will be money well spent, I think!
Getting ready to hop-aboard this thread in DAYS! See you next year! :)
Can't wait, Mrs. M! :-) I think this will be an on-going thing for us as we re-arrange and make room for the new baby. Out with the old, in with the new!
Kat. New arrivals (babies), always make for interesting times in the organizational/adjustment department.
I'm pleasantly smiling right now, over through of what you said about, "out with the old, in with the new". With me, it was more like, "out with the new, and in with the old"! LOL!
Everything I had (baby needs/necessities wise) that I previously had, stuff that I used, was put back into use. Everything baby/kid based, was old-fashioned/traditional!
No Pampers, no electric baby-food makers, no fancy/modern baby bottle warmers, no changing table, no, no, no. LOL!!!
LOL Mrs. M! :) When I said, "out with the old, in with the new," I meant "out with the old way of things" and "in with the new life changes." I, too, will be using all my "old" baby stuff again. That includes cloth diapers. ;-) It does not include bottle warmers, wipe warmers, electric baby food makers, etc.
I do have a changing table, though, and find it very convenient, especially since drop-side cribs aren't available anymore. Being on the short side, I can barely reach over the side of DD's crib to the bottom! So even though it isn't a "need," I'm not sorry I have it! haha!
I do not plan on buying much at all this time around except for maybe a few clothing items (probably second hand) if this baby is a boy. I do have a few gender neutral items, but most of what I had last time was pink, pink, pink! :-) I will probably also make the baby a crib size quilt and pick out one special toy just for him/her. That's about it! It feels good, though...I remember feeling so overwhelmed the last time around and feel I now have a better idea of what we'll use (which is not anywhere close to the amount of stuff "they" tell you you need!).
LMAO, Kat! Did interpret your post as reflecting "new life changes", but the alternative interpretation was funnier!
So happy to hear you'll be utilizing old things again. My intentions weren't to be critical of anything baby related, i.e. changing tables. Hope you didn't take my post that way. :)
I tend to still live in the 60's, so I often discount many things that others may embrace and welcome, but that's what makes life interesting. The mix and match nature of how we all do things and use things, especially us simple/frugal living practitioners!
Re: learning what you need (actually, truly need) is such an asset when it comes to penny-pinching, transition, and applied function. Too many moms nowadays buy needless things. WAY too much needless things.
I had pink, pink, pink, too, when our first was born! Then came blue, blue, blue! ROTFLMAO! But that's all part of the fun of welcoming a new little one, isn't it.
I've looked over the 52Week home challenge outline and updated a few weeks to fit my home.
http://www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/support-files/52-week-organized-home-list.pdf
While I don't have a basement as noted for Week 33 or an attic as in Week 34...I do have a craft room that is easily spread out to 3 weeks of Craft:Fibers, Craft:Metalwork, and Craft:Office.
No Garage but a utility closet that's home for garage-like items.
No kids but a husband that could use some organization in his triathlon room :)
See you all here in the New Year!
Can't wait, Dhiana! As the saying goes... "the more - the merrier"!
Float On
12-29-12, 10:46am
I did something really big for me.
I.hired.help.
It was wonderful!!!!
My house has been in serious need of deep cleaning since I couldn't do much bending or floor work with the broken ankle.
I hired the girl that cleans our church and it was the best $100 I've ever spent. I also wanted to help her have some christmas money because her husband has been laid off from 3 different jobs over the last year and I knew they didn't have any extra for gifts and they've got three cute little girls.
She took care of floors, dusting top to bottom, bathrooms (scrubbed to a shine!), took down all my window treatments and shower curtains so I could wash them and she rehung them. It was my christmas gift to myself to allow someone into my house to clean my dirt. I can now see why others do it!
I may hire her again in the Spring.
My intentions weren't to be critical of anything baby related, i.e. changing tables. Hope you didn't take my post that way. :)
Not at all, Mrs-M. :-)
Float on, so nice to see you posting! I am so happy that you decided to hire some help. It sounds like it was a huge blessing to both you and the woman who came in to clean. Money very well spent IMO, and you can't really put a price on the feeling of peace in your home. :-)
fidgiegirl
12-29-12, 3:43pm
How great, Float On. Win-win.
A site that has detailed directions for getting important papers in order to be ready for any disaster is: http://www.theplacewithnoname.com/blogs/klessons/
He details his family's experience with Katrina, and in the process tells what he has done now to lessen the ramifications of going through another disaster and put it into worksheets. Of course, I've loved this site for many years and still haven't done the worksheets. A few of the things are a bit out of date in that there are more efficient ways to save the information (cloud computing, for one), but the basics still apply. Also takes into consideration young children and how to outfit them with just enough information to have them found if they are separated from you.
Between that site and the Big Book of Everything, I have no excuse not to have my 'affairs' in order.
I discovered "Listening to Katrina" a few years back from a link on the old forums, and I found it very helpful. I even have an encrypted flash drive (IronKey) with a copy (front and back) of everything in my wallet (including debit card and credit card), copy of passport, SS card, birth certificate, etc. It's always on me. I made up the little report cover with a copy of important papers. That sits in an old laptop bag I don't use daily, but could be grabbed in a flash in the case of fire, having to shelter from a tornado, etc.
I use a combo of both Picasa and Flickr for pictures, and Google Drive/Dropbox for other documents. Nothing sensitive, but things like favorite recipes, a copy of my typed list of addresses, etc. Through apps for Google Drive and Dropbox, I can access anything from my smartphone. I also keep my personal papers to a minimum. I get all online bills/statements, etc. I could function without checks if I had to.
Float On, that's a great idea to hire someone to deep clean. I've thought about that myself occasionally - just for a deep clean once a year. I love cooking, but dislike cleaning. And I loathe doing the floors!
ETA: I'm also going to join in this. I don't have a ton of stuff in my small place, but I do need to go through some papers (those things that pile up), do a good thorough clean in advance of the annual house blessing, pitch the Christmas cards, etc. The lower cabinet where I keep my canned goods is also a mess. I was way too busy for most of the year to bother much beyond the most basic cleaning and laundry.
Blackdog Lin
12-29-12, 9:45pm
I am so there with y'all starting January 3 (have plans for the 2nd). I've been procrastinating way bad on my "retirement projects", and need to get started. January: back porch decluttering and deep cleaning (even thought about painting but.....well, let's not get carried away, Lin. :) ) February: important papers/deskwork/organization/home inventory photos/etc. These are accomplish-able goals, giving myself a month each to get 'em done.
I plan to post my goals and then depend on y'all to hold me to them. Please feel free to berate and humiliate me if I don't post any decent progress!
Blackdog Lin
12-29-12, 9:46pm
whoops - double post.
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