Pre-Holiday Whole-House Cleanup Thread: 2016 Edition

[lizzywednesday]

Continuing a successful series of accountability threads, especially for my own time-budgeting, the 2016 Holiday Whole-House Cleanup Thread is now in effect.

Yes, I realize I'm posting it quite a bit earlier this year, but with the way things have worked out, I'll need to host my family shindig on 12/11 because nobody's going to travel to my house on Christmas Eve. (I truly don't blame them one bit.)

I've already divided my house into "zones" that I can probably clean up in an hour or two, so two zones per day should be a decent goal if they're substantially decluttered to begin with.

AVAILABLE WEEKDAYS:

WEEK 1
Tuesday, 11/15; Wednesday, 11/16; Thursday, 11/17; Friday, 11/18 'til noon-ish (reading to DD's class at 2pm)

WEEK 2
Monday, 11/21; Tuesday, 11/22; Wednesday, 11/23 'til 1pm (DD has early dismissal from school)

WEEK 3
Monday, 11/28; Tuesday, 11/29 ('til 1pm - early dismissal for DD & parent-teacher conference at 2pm); Wednesday, 11/30; Thursday, 12/1 ('til 1pm - early dismissal); Friday, 12/2

WEEK 4
Monday, 12/5; Tuesday, 12/6; Wednesday, 12/7; Thursday, 12/8; Friday, 12/9

ZONES:

ZONE 1
Living Room

ZONE 2
Dining Room

ZONE 3
Kitchen

ZONE 4
Upstairs Hallway - includes linen closet (4C) and guest bath (4B)

ZONE 5
3rd Floor - includes three closets, two of which have been sorted

ZONE 6
Entryway, Stairs, & 1st Landing - includes coat closet (6C) and powder room (6B)

ZONE M
Master Bedroom - includes linen closet (M-L), clothes closet (M-C), and bathroom (M-B)

ZONE DD
DD's Bedroom

Priorities:

ZONE 1, ZONE 2, ZONE 3, ZONE 4, and ZONE 6.

Nice-to-Have pre-Party:

ZONE 5, ZONE DD, and ZONE M

To Do's for today:

• Evaluate status of cleaning supplies
• Budget for more supplies (i.e. - mop heads, liquid cleaners, large sponges, rubber gloves)
• Figure out which house areas are easiest to clean together
• Develop declutter plan

Fortunately, pre-Halloween, I did quite a bit of de-cluttering and reorganized our coat closet (6C), so I'm a couple hours ahead of last year.

ETA: Will post tomorrow on the attack plan for WEEK 1.

[jgenie]

I so need to do this. Here's my list!

DONE - Zone 1 - kitchen - cabinets, drawers - WEEK 1

DONE - Zone 2 - playroom - closet, Lego collection - WEEK 2

Zone 3 - office - WEEK 4

DONE - Zone 4 - guest room - closet, dressers - WEEK 3

Zone 5 - basement - 3 storage closets - WEEK 5

Zone 6 - dining room - china cabinet, laundry room items - WEEK 3

Zone 7 - Bedrooms - Master, DS1, DS2, large upstairs closet - WEEK 3

Zone 8 - garage - closet, perimeter - *BONUS* WEEK 6

Zone 9 - mudroom - closet, shelves & drawers - WEEK 5

Week 1 - Zone 1
Week 2 - Zone 2
Week 3 - Zone 4, Zone 6, Zone 7
Week 4 - Zone 3
Week 5 - Zone 5, Zone 9
Bonus - Zone 8

[lizzywednesday]

WEEK 1

DAY 1 - Tuesday, 11/15

ZONE 3
ZONE 2

Focus: Decluttering kitchen and dining room table.

DAY 2 - Wednesday, 11/16

ZONE 4
ZONE 6

DAY 3 - Thursday, 11/17

ZONE 1

DAY 4 - Friday, 11/18 'til noon-ish (reading to DD's class at 2pm)

Floors & powder room toilet

[lizzywednesday]

ACCOMPLISHMENTS - DAY 1

• Decluttered kitchen table (ZONE 3)
• Swept kitchen floor (includes under table - ZONE 3)
• Began decluttering dining room table (ZONE 2)
• Tossed trash, swept under dining room table (ZONE 2)

DAY 2 - GOAL AREAS

ZONE 4 (upstairs hallway & linen closet)
ZONE 6 (entryway & coat/catchall closet)

TO DO LIST:

ZONE 2

• Carry-over task: Complete decluttering of dining table

ZONE 4

• Upstairs landing: wipe down multi-hanger for DD's jeans, put into her room
• Upstairs landing: bag up outgrown DD clothes; donate weather-appropriate ones
• Upstairs landing: find appropriate spots for random books
• Upstairs landing: wipe down blinds, clean window
• Upstairs landing: toss trash
• Upstairs hallway: toss trash
• Upstairs hallway: assess shoe rack, dust shoes, reorganize
• Upstairs hallway: bring recyclables downstairs
• Upstairs hallway: bring empty grocery bags to garage cooler
• Upstairs hallway: rubber-broom sweep for hair, vacuum

ZONE 6

• Entryway: sweep, Swiffer, vacuum
• Entryway: unbox new blender
• Lower level landing: bring DD's books to her room
• Lower level landing: rubber-broom sweep for hair, vacuum
• Stairs: rubber broom sweep for hair, vacuum

[lizzywednesday]

ACCOMPLISHMENTS - DAY 2

• Cleaned upstairs hallway/landing window
• Tossed trash & recyclables from upstairs landing
• Dusted & reorganized shoes on shoe rack
• Took DH's stuff to 3rd floor
• Collected outgrown clothes to stash in garage (donate on Friday after reading to DD's class)
• Used rubber broom to clear up hair, rubber bands, miscellany in hallway pre-vacuum
• Vacuumed upstairs hallway
• Brought DD's books to her room

[lizzywednesday]

DAY 3 - GOALS

TO-DO LIST:

ZONE 6

• Carry-over task: clear lower-level landing
• Carry-over task: rubber broom & vacuum stairs, landing
• Carry-over task: unbox new blender

ZONE 1

• Declutter surfaces (endtable, TV stand, mantel, puzzle shelf)
• Declutter seating
• Declutter/sort "tv nook" area
• Pick up all trash
• Sweep floor
• Swiffer floor
• Vacuum floor
• Launder drapes

[gobadgers]

This is awesome, keep it up!

I'm going to add in - I have a lot of short term stuff todo before THanksgiving. I have done a lot of decluttering, but have a lot more before guests arrive on Tuesday!

My areas that still need attention:

Zone 1: guest bathroom (go through under sink and cabinet, declutter to make room for guests)
Zone 2: family room ('stuff' has piled up all around fireplace, need to go through it and remove)
Zone 3: entryway (cabinet drawers need major cleaning to make space for winter hats, gloves, etc..)
Zone 4: Den, aka The Situation Room (has MAJOR clutter, separate donations from keepers, and DONATE)

[lizzywednesday]

ACCOMPLISHMENTS - DAY 3

• Decluttered TV stand
• Decluttered endtable
• Decluttered bookshelf
• Decluttered "tv nook"
• Laundered drapes (but managed to shrink them, d'oh! Was looking for new ones anyway, I guess.)
• Re-hung drapes
• Vacuumed cobwebs
• Dusted endtable
• Dusted table lamp
• Dusted "tv nook"
• Dusted TV stand
• Dusted TV
• Had DD dust bookshelves, puzzles
• Shifted furniture to sweep underneath
• Vacuumed baseboards
• Cleaned windows (ew)
• Gathered trash
• Swiffered floor
• Vacuumed floor
• Had DD dust magazines in magazine rack
• Re-organized "tv nook"

Notice two items include DD.

This is because, around noon, the school nurse phoned asking me to come take DD home. (DD has complained of an upset stomach the past 2 days, but perks up after half an hour or so of rest. She's upstairs right now watching a DVR-ed show.)

Things are still a little messy because my groove got thrown off, but it'll be mostly cleaned up before DH comes home.

[lizzywednesday]

ACCOMPLISHMENTS - WEEK 1

• Decluttered kitchen
• Cleaned kitchen table
• Decluttered endtable
• Decluttered shelving unit
• Decluttered "tv nook" area
• Partially decluttered dining room table
• Floors swept
• Trash tossed
• Upstairs hallway decluttered & cleaned
• Laundered living room drapes (though also shrunk them ... oops!)
• Folded & put clean laundry away

I changed my mind about mopping the floors this early; I'll only have to do it again as the holidays get closer, so I'm putting it off for now.

WEEK 2 - DAY 1

Today's kind of a wash due to last-minute errands that needed to happen before Thanksgiving, but I'll be raking leaves in a few.

WEEK 2 - DAY 2: GOALS

ZONE M-B

• Collect & launder bath mats
• Spray down shower stall
• Spray down sinks
• Spray down bathtub
• Mop floor
• Clean & disinfect trash can

ZONE 4-B

• Launder bath mat
• Spray down bathtub/shower
• Spray down sink
• Spray down bathtub
• Mop floor
• Clean toilet

ZONE 6-B

• Launder bath mat
• Spray down sink
• Spray down bathtub
• Mop floor
• Clean toilet

[jgenie]

Wow - you are rocking this!!! Keep it up!!!