After I had already finished today’s entry, I got an email from Home Made Simple with a plan to  organize your home in 30 days. I think it might be workable if your house is already in pretty good shape. It’s not enough for my situation, but some of you might find it useful. Enjoy!
Day Eleven
I posted a comment on reddit last night and many people are dropping by to check things out. Hi, redditors! It makes it much easier to go on when you know somebody is looking. I also had someone else request more pictures, so I will endeavor to add even more. As I told a friend, some just feel TOO embarrassing to share, but that’s part of the point. If it is so bad I am embarrassed to show it, then it REALLY needs cleaning, and will look twice as awesome when it is done. 🙂 In some ways the rolling the whole day at once yesterday worked. I knew what was coming up next. In other ways, it took a lot of the fun out of it. I knew what was coming up next! Rather a paradox…lol. But I think I will go back to my rolling one chore at a time. And remember — if you don’t have dice yet, that is no reason you can’t get started. Pick a random number if you have to. Or have someone else give you a number. Write the numbers on a piece of paper, close your eyes and pick one.
So…first up today is — 45 minutes in the Upstairs “Hall.” Here we go!
    
Before                           After
The floor is still a disaster. We had a sick cat a few months back, and she apparently used this area as a litter box…that carpet is disgusting — but I can’t do anything more about it without a deep cleaner, so I’ll have to wait until I get the carpets cleaned. But, the area is at least picked up. And I am celebrating with the diet soda I promised myself when I finished the chore. 🙂 Let’s see what’s up next.
Ah! A room that hasn’t been touched yet — my “Junk Room.” This is a little area in our Master Suite that might be a study to someone else, but we’ve just kind of stacked boxes in there. There are boxes in there that haven’t been opened since before we were married…almost nine years ago. I know what they say about that — if you haven’t seen it in years, do you really need it? But I can’t risk losing some things I remember having but can’t find…lol. So, I am actually looking forward to this one. And I think I’ll replace some of those cardboard junk boxes with plastic that I can see what is inside. 🙂 Off to spend an hour in the “Junk Room”!
UPDATE ONE:Â Well, it doesn’t look like a whole lot from the pictures, but I feel pretty good about the results of my hour. I’ll let you decide:
Junk Room
  
Before                                   After
At least there is more clear floor there now. Didn’t get any boxes filled, but I did get some shelves set up and some things organized on them. And there is a cleaner path to the bathroom. 🙂 What’s next, I wonder…? First roll was 15 minutes outside in the back yard. As I said yesterday, there really isn’t much left to do out there, so I re-rolled the location — transferring that 15 minutes to the Study. That won’t get a lot done in that madhouse, but I do want to straighten out my reference bookshelf, so I’m going to focus on that.
UPDATE TWO: Here are the results. What do you think? It doesn’t look like a great deal, but for the time involved, I think it looks pretty good. 🙂
Reference Bookcase:
    
Before                            After
At least all the books that were stuffed on top are now shelved correctly. Organized those into the shelves where they were supposed to be. Still not enough room for all my reference books, but that’s a problem for another day. 🙂
My next roll for the day is 45 more minutes in the Upstairs Hall. I thought about re-rolling it, but decided to go ahead and keep it. More time to work on that desk from hell.
That will add up to 2 hours and 45 minutes. I think that will be it for today, because of the extra hour yesterday. Is that fair?
UPDATE THREE: Got the desk cleared — though admittedly a great deal of it was sorting into a box for filing later. Confirmed that the boxes which have been serving as “legs” for the desk have collapsed. It’s supposed to be a floor desk anyway, so it might get to go back to that configuration (it’s not as if we really need another desk, but that one is special.)
Here’s the photos:
    
Before                           After
This desk was handmade by an artist friend of mine. I love it, but I’ve been mistreating it. I’ll make sure it gets a nice coat of Pledge soon.
I ran across something when I was sorting stuff today that I thought was relevant to share. Â This was an organizing tool we got at work several years ago. It is a corporate standard, as I recall. And it translates well for home use as well.
        The Five S’s
- Sort: need or don’t need — be hard on yourself
- Set: have a place for everythingÂ
- Shine: maintenance schedule for keeping it clean
- Standard: EVERYONE does it (this is going to be the hard part when I am done!)
- Strict: monitor/audit — make sure that it is maintained.
I also ran across a similar set of rules in an organization article about dealing with closets — these are very easy to wrap your head around, and they can be adapted to overall cleaning, not just closets:
- SORT — take out everything and quick sort it into piles
- PURGEÂ — put things that belong elsewhere, need fixing, or should be given away in appropriately labeled boxes
- ASSIGNÂ AÂ HOME — find a place for everything to go
- CONTAINERIZE — use labeled boxes to store things in and dividers to keep things neat
- TOSSÂ ITÂ — throw out things you no longer have a use for, that are broken, don’t fit, or are outdated
It’s been a long day. Planning on taking it easy for a few. See y’all tomorrow. 🙂
DAILY WRAP UP: 45 minutes Upstairs Hall + 1 hour “Junk Room” + 15 minutes Study + 45 minutes Upstairs Hall = 2 hours 45 minutes. (A little short, but yesterday was an hour long.)
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Tagged Adrienne Rose, carpet, chores, cleaning, dice, hall, photographs, photos, pictures, sorting
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Day Ten
Sometimes, you just don’t feel like doing anything. You want to just goof off for the day. I’m feeling like that today…and that is a trap! One day without any work, and it is easier to slack off the next day…by the third day, it’s easier to let things go completely. So, I’m gonna be pushing today.
I’m going to try rolling all my chores at once today, that way I can know where I am going. It may not work out like I expect, but we will see. So, here go the rolls:
4 (Downstairs) Â 3 (Hallway/Stairs) Â 4 (1 hour) Â — Not sure there is that much work left in that area with the vacuum cleaner broken, but we’ll give it a shot.
4 (Downstairs) Â 2 (Dining Room) Â 1 (15 minutes) — Was worried about there being enough to do till I rolled the duration. I know I can find 15 minutes more to do.
2 (Garage/Pantry) Â 1 (Garage) Â 5 (1 hour 15 minutes) — There’s at least that much time to go out there.
3 (Outside) Â 4 (Back Yard) Â 1 (15 minutes) — Not a problem.
1 (Upstairs) Â 1 (Computer Room) Â 5 (1 hour 15 minutes) — That adds up to 4 hours for the day, but I didn’t get a full 3 hours yesterday, so I’m cool with that.
And I’ll try to post more pictures. 🙂
UPDATE ONE: Wow. I didn’t expect to spend almost the entire hour on the stairs, but they really needed it. First of all, sweeping carpeted stairs isn’t as easy as vacuuming, but I need to take my vacuum in to be fixed, and decided the stairs couldn’t wait that long. It was worth it…though I did crack the broom!
That’s all from the stairway. Four cats…maybe I can borrow a vacuum…
The other thing that really needed to be done in the stairwell was addressing the handrails. I’ve been hating them for ages, and finally attacked with the 409. It made a world of difference:
Before
After
The cleaning is really starting to pay off. We’re off to job two.
UPDATE TWO: So, 15 minutes in the dining room put me in the middle of cleaning the inside of the windows, so I made an executive decision to keep at it until I was done. It felt good not to stop just because the time was up.
Also hung a load of laundry out in the back yard. The laundromat was good for Newell’s work clothes, but I usually just wash mine in my leaky washer and dry them outside as long as it is feasible. It gets me outside, which is nice. 🙂
Taking a wee break before I tackle the garage time. One good thing, when I was getting a load of laundry together, I found my good pedometer. Amazing that I’ve already put in over a thousand steps today just in my own house.
Ah, well. Enough of a break. Out to the Garage!
UPDATE THREE: Quit early in the Garage because I broke the broom the rest of the way and filled every nook and cranny of the trash can. There was a good amount of progress made however:
This corner now looks like this:
Still have a lot to go in there, but it is really looking better.
Next on the list is fifteen minutes outside in the back yard. Want to get that done while there is  still sun going.
UPDATE FOUR: Okay…it might be sunny out there, but it was still chilly. So I did some straightening that I really wanted to get done but quit early. I’m going to add 30 minutes to my last chore of the day (1 hour 15 minutes in the Computer Room) to make up for the bits I cut off the earlier chores of the day.
And it will be easy to do 1 hour and 45 minutes here in the Computer Room…
For example…here’s my desk:
Before
And after.
It might not seem like a lot got done there…it’s still a bit crowded…but it’s a lot better. I still have some sorting to do on that, but at least it’s all in one neat pile to sort, instead of all over the desk. And now I can get to that proof I need to read without feeling crowded. It will be even better when I can get back into the Study to write, but that’s still a ways off.
I’m not going to mention what I did today to Newell. I’m curious if he will notice the handrails for sure…
DAILY WRAP UP: 1 hour Stairs + 30 minutes Dining Room + 1 hour Garage + 15 ish minutes Back Yard + 1 hour 30 minutes Computer Room = over 4 hours today! No wonder I was tired when I finished. 🙂
OH! One more thing I wanted to note — 2940 Steps today. They say ideally you should put in 5000 daily. Well, we’ll work up to that. Considering that number is all housecleaning, I feel it is pretty respectable.Â
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Tagged Adrienne Rose, back yard, broom, chores, cleaning, computer room, dice, dining room, filing, garage, hall, housecleaning, outside, stairs, sweeping, vacuum cleaner
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Day Nine
First roll of the day is thirty minutes in the Garage. Now, if I can only get Newell off to work so the car will be out of the middle of it. 🙂 Trash has been collected, so my can is empty, but with the bags waiting to go in it, it will be full by the end of the day…
UPDATE ONE: Make that before noon. Trashcan is already full till next Monday, and I didn’t get half the trash in it. Wonder if there is something to do about that? They used to have stickers you could buy and put on extra bags. If they still do, I might have to get some.
Swept most of the Garage and got the apartment dishwasher I inherited many years ago almost emptied. There is broken glass in the bottom though, so I’ll need to be careful with that.
Getting a lot of little rolls today. It will mean a lot of chores! Second roll fifteen minutes in the downstairs bath. But I think I may go do a load or two of laundry first while I have the car today.
UPDATE TWO: Back from the laundromat — luckily, we have an AWESOME one nearby, Wash Day. I love that place. Friendly, helpful people; seldom a wait; and no coins needed — it’s all on a card. I see that they have a branch even closer now. I’ll have to check that out.
Then, a quick stop at the grocery store. Having the whiteboard in the pantry to jot down groceries on and picking things up as I need them seems to be working. On the other hand…usual result of laundry is back ache, and today is no different. I have got to figure out a way not to incapacitate myself with chores! So, taking a bit of a break before I get back to work.
UPDATE THREE: Noticeable difference in the downstairs bath in fifteen minutes. Still some to do in there, but it’s so small that even a few minutes made it look much better. Keep that in mind — a few minutes straightening can make a world of difference in a room, even if there is no for deep cleaning.
The best part of all this work is that Newell is noticing the effort. That makes me happier than anything.
So, 45 minutes down today means two and a quarter hours to go…next roll coming up.
30 minutes in the Dining Room. Looks like the floor may be most of the agenda. Loving my new Mr. Clean Magic Eraser mop. It works like a charm.
UPDATE FOUR: Lots of updates on a little roll day! Floor mopped and plants trimmed up a bit. To be honest, I’m wiped out today…and I spent more than 2 hours on the trip to the laundry and the grocery store. I’m counting that time toward the three hours today. Does that seem fair to you? If not, I’ll never do it again. 😉 (Newell said it was cool. :P)
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Tagged garage, grocery store, laundromat, laundry, mop, Mr. Clean, white board
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A New Week Starts and the Old One Ends….
When I was a kid, I had a record with a song called “Sunday Morning”. When I looked it up, I was surprised by the rest of the lyrics…all I remembered was the chorus…but it fits my mood today. First steps out into the new week. Fingers crossed because I was down a pound on the scale this morning. Maybe the exercise is worth the sore back. 🙂
I dreamed of cleaning last night…and searching for one particular thing in a nest of clutter. Yikes! but looking around the house, and seeing the changes that are already apparent, I am more determined than ever to continue this goal.
UPDATE ONE: So, I cajoled Newell into going to see Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows today. Most of the reviews on IMDB seem to be pretty negative, but I loved it. However, it has set me back a bit. Getting a terribly late start today.
First roll is 1 hour 30 minutes in the Guest Bath upstairs. I am pretty sure, even considering the need to scrub the floor in places that there isn’t that much work left to do in that room, but we will give it a shot, because I have been wanting to get that floor taken care of. So, I’ll let you know if I finish early and have to add time back to the day.
UPDATE TWO: Yup, finished an hour early in there. Scrubbed the baseboards, took the pumice stone to the toilet and got it finished…Everything is spic and span in plain sight. I suppose I could get into sorting the stuff in the medicine box in the linen closet and so on, but I think it would be more productive to add the hour back into the total and get on to a room that isn’t in such good shape.
So, next roll — After stubbornly trying to get me into the pantry again, the dice compromised with an hour in the garage. There are boxes to go through in there that I really wanted to get at, so that sounds good to me.
I hope people are getting at least a little enjoyment out of my efforts, but even if you aren’t, I’m going to keep blogging, because its main purpose is to keep me going. Â Let me know what you like and dislike about it so far…okay?
UPDATE TWO: Quit about 10 minutes early in the garage. I probably could have — heck, I KNOW I could have found ten minutes more to do, but the car being in the way and the trashcan overflowing were making things hard. I did go through several boxes and toss some keepsakes I’d had for decades…while finding others I had forgotten I had. So, good and bad things. For one thing, I found a garlic press I didn’t even remember having, but I’d been wanting one of those, so after a good soak in the dishwasher, fresh garlic. Hooray!
Halfway through my 3 hours, and I must keep going. But it is days like this, gray, gloomy, and Sunday at that which make it hard to meet that full three hour goal.
Let’s see what the dice have to say next:
45 minutes in the Study. I can do that. If I ever want to be able to write at my actual writing desk again, I really NEED to do that. Wish me luck…I’m going in!
UPDATE THREE:Â Not enough visible difference to show that I did anything, but I did put some things away where they belonged, and got some ideas on what to do with other things. Though my Psycho Kitty was not making things easy. She started screaming at me and bit my hand. Sometimes, she just goes nuts…
So, technically 45 minutes to an hour left for today, and I think I am going to call an arbitrary file hour. There is always a lot of filing to do, and it is still cleaning while being relatively easy on the back.
DAILY WRAP UP: Â 30 minutes Guest Bath + 1 Hour (50 minutes) Garage + 45 minutes Study + 1 hour Filing = Close enough to 3 hours. Â See y’all tomorrow.
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Tagged boxes, cleaning, clutter, desk, dreams, garage, guest bath, housecleaning, mop, pumice stone, scrub floors, sorting, study, Sunday
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Day Seven
So, the first end of the week day. I’ve kept going for an entire week. For me, that’s epic. 🙂
Of course, when I rolled my first task today (45 minutes in the Upstairs “Hall” area), Newell said “On a Saturday?” Yeah. It’s a bit harder on a day that we are both off and usually goofing off gaming or something, but if I lose my momentum, I expect to crash and burn — so I did my 45 minutes going through papers on a desk that should be more decorative than functional, but has become a drop spot for junk. The dent barely shows again…but slow and steady wins the race they say.
I have a meeting out of the house at 4 pm, so I’d better get cracking on whatever the next chore is!
Another re-roll. What the heck is it about my pantry?! It’s actually gotten most of the love this week, and is in fairly good shape, so wasting the hour and a half trying to find enough more to do in there would be silly. Re-rolling the area…
An hour and a half in the Computer Room is totally believable. There’s a lot still to do. Like clear my desk, for one thing. 🙂
UPDATE ONE:Â Didn’t get much of my desk done, but…
Tada! I don’t even know how long it has been since I have seen the top of that table completely cleared. I told Newell he’d have to help keep it that way, and he said sure he’d help — he’d close the table. Well, whatever works!
UPDATE TWO: I was tempted to quit early today…I really was. Especially when the roll kept vacillating between the front yard and the pantry — both areas in pretty good shape — but I rolled one more time and got the Kitchen, and there was definitely 45 minutes of work to do in there.
This may not look like that big a deal, but remember that the key thing about cleaning is not to just move stuff (though I did do some of that) but to sort, toss, and put stuff where it belongs. This counter top is another one of those spaces that attracts a mess like a magnet.
But now, it looks like this:
Newell should be pleased! 🙂
DAILY WRAP UP: 45 minutes in Upstairs “Hall” + 1 hour 30 minutes in Computer Room + 45 minutes in the Kitchen = Â 3 hours and I’m outta here!
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Tagged cleaning, computer room, counter, desk, filing, housecleaning, kitchen, re-rolls, sorting
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1/6/2012 — Oops…Missed a Day
So much for writing in both blogs everyday. I DID manage to get my Sales Taxes paid today though…first time on time in a while. I said I was going to try to be more responsible business-wise this year.
I didn’t meet one of my other goals this week. I was supposed to get something out this week. Something new…which didn’t get written. Of course, tomorrow is another day, and still part of the week. So very much to do!
Since I haven’t written anything new this year, here’s a bit of old to share with you. I particularly like this poem 🙂 :
She Wraps Herself in Autumn
 Brown
Gold
Copper
Red
She wraps herself in Autumn.
Leaves surround her
in a patterned gown
held together with spidersilk
and moonbeams.
A touch of Spring green
to remind her of tomorrow —
the sun will come again —
and her dress will be of flowers…
but for now,
she wraps herself in Autumn.
Red
Copper
Gold
Brown
Everybody have a good weekend.
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Day Six
Newell’s turn at the dentist today, and I have errands to run, so I will probably be out of the house most of the day. BUT I’ve still rolled and done my first chore for today, 15 minutes in the kitchen, and cleared that counter he was fussing about. Even if you only have a scrap of time available, see if there is some little thing you can do. It all adds up in the end!
(BTW…does anyone on WordPress use the Blog Stats widget? If so, does it EVER update, or am I just overestimating the number of people reading this thing? I have a different counter on the other blog, but I can’t remember where to find it. Any help appreciated…)
UPDATE ONE: I had rolled my second chore before I left the house this morning — another short one, but I knew just what I wanted to do in that thirty minutes and did it. I had 30 minutes in the pantry, and bought a new mop on the way home so that I could start on that grimy floor. Of course, I didn’t think to get anything to use as a mop bucket, so I had to improvise…but one of the myriad boxes bought to sort stuff into worked ideally. Bacterial soap in the water to help with the germs on this first pass, and I think it looks great.
I had decided that I might do things a bit differently on Fridays, and being gone all day makes this seem like a good idea. For the other 2 hours and 15 minutes of today, I am going to institute “FILING FRIDAYS” and plop down with my new file folders in front of the TV to sort papers and organize the file cabinet that contains all our bills and receipts. Mostly, they are flung loose into the drawer, but finding anything is abysmal. This is a chore that needs to be done, but is less strenuous than some of the other cleaning jobs, and I think I’ve earned the relative relaxation. 🙂
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Tagged Adrienne Rose, blog stats, chores, cleaning, counter, housecleaning, kitchen
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Day Five
Well, slow start and LONG duration on the first roll today. Got 1 hour 45 minutes in the bedroom. I’ll admit it. I couldn’t do it. Quit about 20 minutes early, so I’ll have to tack that time back onto the end somewhere. Didn’t take pictures this time, as it wasn’t all that picturesque to start with. Have to get my vacuum cleaner fixed for sure. Really missing it!
My second roll of the day is the one I’ve been actually dreading with all my heart but REALLY needing. My study. This is where I am supposed to be able to get my writing done. When you see the pictures…and yes, this time there will be pictures…you will see that even the hour and a half I rolled will make a minor dent in it. I’ll be happy if I can open the door to get to work after this!
UPDATE ONE: Boy. You can barely see a difference in there…but at least the door does swing freely now. It is a bit humbling to post these pictures. I feel really embarrassed things ever got this bad in the first place — but at least I am working on it. I see something like Hoarders and it’s scary. I don’t want to get THAT bad so I am doing something about it. Someone commented about the three hours a day asking just how messy my house IS…well, a lot messier than it should be!Â
Here’s the study:
   
   
Â
The sad part is, even after time was up, though I could see the difference, I don’t know that anyone else can:
Maybe I should have a few more sessions before I post more shots of that one. 😉
Anyway, that’s three hours and a long day for me. I still have other projects to work on. Calling it a night on the cleaning.
UPDATE TWO: I really thought I was done for the day, but I saw a commercial for the Austin Home and Garden Show this evening and got really excited. I might even go down to the convention center and check it out… What have I done to myself?! Anyone in the area want to go with me? 😉
DAILY WRAP UP: 1 hour 30 minutes in bedroom (though I should have gone longer) + 1 hour 30 minutes in Study = 3 hours.
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Tagged cleaning, hoarders, housecleaning, study
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Rie Sheridan Rose 
Day Twelve
Today will be a taxing one. I’m sitting up at 4:00 AM because my allergies are destroying me and the Benedryl hasn’t kicked in yet. If Newell wakes me up early again, those three hours of concentrated cleaning will be especially hard! On the other hand, the joy of seeing things come together is a great incentive to clean. 😉 I’ll roll my first go of the day here, then go try to sleep a little more. 30 minutes in the Studio will be my first chore
tomorrow this morning.UPDATE ONE: It won’t be easy to see the progress in the pictures for this chore, but believe me, a LOT of books went downstairs to the library (a room I haven’t rolled yet…) where they belonged. Psycho Kitty was protesting the activity loudly most of the time.
Before (see PK’s tail?) Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â After
I guess you can see more clean floor than I thought. One step at a time. But believe me — up and down stairs with armloads of books for 30 minutes is a full workout!
Newell told me I could take a day off if I needed to, but I told him it wasn’t a good idea. When my Convention season starts, there will be whole weekends off. I can’t afford extra days at this stage. BUT, I do think I’ll take a wee break. 😉
Let’s see what’s next first.
30 minutes in the Garage.Since the car is in the garage, does cleaning that out count?UPDATE TWO: Ugh! Okay, that does it…I’m calling it. 😦 Got some lunch, bought a vacuum cleaner for the interim until I could see about getting the old one fixed, then took a two-hour nap. And still feel like crap. I might as well admit that the only way I’ll get anything else done today is if I get more filing done. I’m not even sure I feel up to that, but at least it has more likelihood. I feel like I let the team down…but sometimes life gets in the way.
DAILY WRAP UP: 30 minutes in Studio = Disappointing day.
TINY UPDATE THREE: Well, didn’t get much else done, though I kept hoping to feel better…but I did get the vacuum functional and tried it out. LOVE it. At least so far. Easy to carry around, bagless, lots of attachments. Think this is the start of a beautiful relationship. Here’s what I got:Â Euro-Pro Shark Navigator Swivel Deluxe Upright Bagless Vacuum Cleaner with Premium Pet Tools
 — so far (not that I’ve done a lot) it gets 5 Stars from me!