It's that time of year. The time of year when I've recovered from the horrid heat of the summer and can actually focus on a cleaning schedule. I was reading an article recently on the fact that you can keep your house clean by doing one thing a day above your normal cleaning. I thought to myself, "Self, you know that is true because you used to do that!" A year or so ago, I created a basic deep cleaning schedule where I assigned rooms to each month and basically did all of the dreaded deep cleaning stuff about three times a year. I follow Flylady and she assigns zones each week of the month and gives "missions" daily to do in each of those rooms. I found that if I do those missions each month, the house stays clean - then the added "one thing a day" really gets into the corners; the places only your mother looks HA! When I was cleaning the kitchen recently, I made a list of about 20 things to do in that room, the porch, entryway, and outside. I've decided to assign October to those areas :-)
I plan to try and accomplish one of the items a day, leaving Saturdays to play catch up as needed. I left open Josh's birthday because that day will be focused on him and also, anytime there are 31 days - the 31st is a free day :-)
Here is my list:
1. Clean the fridge - Inside, outside, on top and moving it to clean under it.
2. Clean the Dishwasher - outside, and inside!!
3. Clean the Stove - Inside, outside, and under it :-)
4. Clean the Microwave - you get the drift!
5. Clean out the Trash cupboard area - I will scrub out the trash cupboard and trash cans and then organize the "junk" drawer and the cupboard above it. This will allow me to clean out things I haven't used or don't need anymore.
6. Stove Side Cupboards - same things as above - basically just going through the cupboards and wiping down the shelves and cleaning out stuff I don't need plus basic reorganizing.
7. Sink Side Cupboards - same as above.
8. Fridge Side Cupboards - same as above
9. Windows - Wash the insides and outsides of the windows and also clean the window sill and Slider Track.
10. Deep Dusting - taking everything down and washing it, wiping down shelves, using the duster to go along the ceiling edges and also dusting down the baseboards.
11. Wash the curtains (an easy day HA!)
12. Counter tops - Cleaning the entire counter top and also wiping down all items on the counter top
13. Floor - Hand mopping the floors - all the nooks and crannies. Also shaking out or washing the rugs on the floor
14. The Basement steps - Vacuuming them with the shop vac
15. Walls - wiping down the walls
16. Porch - this is really just making sure it is clean and no junk is laying around
17. Recipe Binder - this thing tends to overflow so I want to make sure everything is filed and pull out recipes we haven't used in a long time.
18. Outside Garbage Can - that gross stinky thing! It needs to be bleach and then sprayed out.
19. Return Pop Cans
20. Clean the light fixtures in the kitchen and on the porch
21. Clean the truck inside and out!!
**All month - outside! There is weeding that needs done, lights to be replaced, kids toys to be put away before the first snowfall, and the garage needs to be cleaned up. I'll be able to plug this stuff in on some of the days that have smaller tasks and when the weather cooperates :-)
Also - I'm hoping to be able to buy one replacement item for the house that we need each month - sometimes it is just something simple like a can opener and sometimes it is a deep fryer. The other thing I want to start doing each month is something I'm calling "Restock $50". Basically taking $50.00 a month and buying things like Paper towel, Toilet Paper, Batteries, Trash Bags, etc. Those things that eat up the budget. I can watch for the best sales and pick stuff up to help build a stock pile of those things.
*** I have to confess - I'm behind already. I had planned to start strong but life has gotten in the way. I'm hoping to catch up this weekend since it is supposed to be rainy . . ..
