Spring Cleaning Madness (Challenge Time!)

I can’t stand it anymore. My house is a filthy wreck, and I’m not only disgusted but I’m ashamed.

I’m also so ready for Spring it’s really crazy. I’ve been known to battle with seasonal depression, and when other stuff goes wrong during that time, life can get pretty um… well let’s just say “messy”.

I’ve actually been out of the habit of cleaning regularly for some time. Don’t be mistaken, I don’t qualify for an episode of  “Clean House” or anything – but I’ve really been spending nearly every waking moment working online for the past few years now and I feel out of control at this point. Call it an epiphany, call it just flat out sick and tired, I don’t know, but I’ve decided to do something serious about it.

I’m issuing a challenge to myself. Feel free to join along, and report back with the weekly updates I’m going to make.

So here’s the setup…

There are 6 common rooms in the house that I share with my dad: kitchen, living, laundry/pantry, dining, bath, and another “extra” room that we don’t do much with but is basically another living area.

There’s then my office and my bedroom. That’s a total of 8 rooms in the plan. He can do whatever he wants with his own office and bedroom, I couldn’t care less at this point.

For this and the next 7 weeks, I’m going to deep clean one room every weekend (Saturday and/or Sunday – aiming for doing it all in one day). Once that room is cleaned, it gets assigned a day of the week for the “weekly touchup”.

Today, I attacked the bathroom. In fact, it’s still under attack – I’ve been stopping every hour and a half or so for a quick break (lunch, something to drink, writing this post, etc). The point is not just so that I don’t get burned out, but also so that I can feel that I’m accomplishing much more than just the deep clean for that room that day. I’ve also done two loads of laundry, some client work, and completed one and a half blog posts. When I finish this one, it’ll be two, and I’m planning on aiming for at least 2 more before my bed hits the pillow tonight. I digress…

My first step in today’s deep clean was the bathroom floor. I know, right? You’re supposed to start from the top and work your way down! But I couldn’t stand it any longer and just HAD to go after the dirtiest part of the bathroom first.

The bathroom itself is in dire need of a remodeling, but right now there’s neither the money or the time – however once my weekends free up (after this 7 weeks) the bathroom is first on the list for the major stuff.

Since I started only today, I’m not going to be able to get to everything – I should’ve done much of this yesterday, so in fact I’m likely going to be attacking more of the bathroom tomorrow, but that’s okay. I’ve carved out a 2 hour chunk of time in my schedule for it.

So far in the past 4 hours (less breaks) here’s what I’ve accomplished…

• Got down on hands and knees and scrubbed the floor with bleached, soapy water. I can count on one hand the number of times in my life I’ve scrubbed a floor on hands and knees. Bonus: My arms are already killing me! What a workout!
• Tossed about a dozen old makeup products so far.
• Scrubbed the lower half of the walls (can’t do the upper half – that’s the part in need of remodeling help), the molding around the floor and windows, cabinets, closet door (outside), bathroom door (inside and outside).
• Washed windows and mirrors.
• Scrubbed toilet, sink, and counter.

What’s left to this deep cleaning?

• Continue tossing out old cosmetics, products, and so on.
• Clean shelves and closet floor.
• Scrub tub and shower walls.
• Buy new shower curtains (inside plastic and outside fabric) and hooks. Put them up.

And the remodeling work list can be found on the 2009 Around The House Goal Sheet.

I think I’m going to add the deep cleaned rooms to the weekly touchup list in reverse order – so the bathroom is going to be the Friday task from this point forward. Weekly touchup for the bathroom will consist of:

• Scrub toilet, sink, tub/shower, and counter.
• Polish fixtures.
• Clean mirrors.
• Swiffer and mop floor.
• Towel laundry.

Eventually my plan is going to be to do the deep cleans once a month, say, the first weekend of each month or thereabouts (depending on whatever’s going on of course). If I find that that’s too often, because I’ve been so stellar at the weekly’s then I’ll delay it to every other month. We’ll see, this is going to be an adventure! LOL

Bathroom

First Deep Clean: March 1, 2009
Scheduled Touchup Day: Friday
Next Deep Clean: April 4, 2009

What kind of cleaning plans/structure do you have? Do you want to join the challenge with me? Check out the 2009 Around The House Goal Sheet and the Clean Home Challenge Roundup to follow along!

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