5 Weeks To A Clean and Organized Home wk2

Day 5 Week 2 ~ Last Day In The Living Room

We will should be cleaning upholstered furniture, floors and baseboards to finish up "week 2". My children did this step on day 2. We get to skip cleaning baseboards since we don't have any! Woohoo! Who knew not have finished floors could save a cleaning step! LOL All I need to do is a good mopping but that will wait til the rain stops.

Since I have nothing to clean today we are headed out to a local antique fair. 20 miles of rummage, estate, antiquing, and garage sales! No fears on clutter coming back with me. We are JUST looking!

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update. It took 5 hrs to drive that 20 miles plus coming home. All we bought were "Texas Cookies" from a Mennonite family. YUM! We will be making up a batch of those soon!

5 Weeks To A Clean and Organized Home wk2

Day 4 of Week 2 ~ Windows and Door Frames In The Living Room 

 

We will work on the windows, window frames and door frames. Make sure to get the tops of the door and window frames where the big dust bunnies live! I use vinegar to clean my windows. I won't say it smells as nice as store bought cleaners but there are no streaks or fingerprints left when I am finished and I trust my children to use to. We have had issues of "run by spraying" in the past and as least now I am sure that their clothes and eyes won't be damaged by toxins!

I recently painted my front door and I am so happy how clean and nice it looks! Why it took almost 4 yrs to get to...well...laziness. That buggar took 5 days and about as many coats of paint to look decent! It could still use another coat if I was in the least OCD... ahem. But it is windy here and not good painting weather and that is my story and I'm sticking to it!

The inside of the door needs painted but I am not ready for that project. I cleaned it with my favorite tool, MR Clean Magic Eraser, and it will do for now.

5 Weeks To A Clean and Organized Home wk2

Day 3 of Week 2 ~ Cleaning Up The Living Room

It is Wednesday and over at Christian HomeKeeper™ Network we are still working on cleaning and organizing the living room. Look around can you still find things to purge? What about a better more efficient way to arrange the furniture? Any storage needs lacking? Does your living room say, "Come in. Sit and stay awhile."?

My living room is about as bare bones as I can get it. I have 1 full size leather couch, 1 love seat, Hubby's recliner, 1 side table with lamp, 1 coffee table and the upright piano that is rarely used that currently hold the computer with the CPU sitting on a file cabinet next to it. There are 3 framed print of the names of Jesus, 2 decorative candle holders around a Kirkland's picture on the wall and 4 pictures of the family.

My living room is 13.6 by 23 ft so it sounds like a good size right? WRONG. It is fully open to the kitchen. Each wall has a doorway on it. There is a large low way off center picture window taking up the "long" wall so nothing can really go over there. The other "long wall" has a big door way to the hall and runs right into the kitchen. The only way to arrange it is the sofas are on the longer walls with the love seat squeezed between front door and picture window. Our piano is on the master bedroom wall again SQUEEZED in and Hubby's chair and the side table "float" at the other end of the couches depending on if I want to block the window. 

I wish I could turn either sofa sideways in the room and get one of them off the wall but it completely blocks traffic. That is the only drawback to over sized furniture: it limits arrangements, but it is the price I gladly pay for Hubby to have his 6'9 body comfy. 

Someday we hope to take out the improperly installed and leaky picture window and line that wall with 4 ft tall bookcases with a gas fireplace in the middle. We would put in a row of small square windows (3-4) over the top of the bookcases. By doing that we could move the leather sofa down the wall closer to the kitchen and place the recliner and buy a mate to it in front of the bookcases leaving the master bedroom wall as a piano area or maybe add a desk for an office. I could then get my love seat back in my room were it belongs. Only lack of funds and time to remodel stopping that dream. 

But then we are starting to think KNOW this is not our "forever house" and we are having to think resale value. This place is a money pit and there is only so much lipstick you can slap on a pig! Hubby and I are at the "finish the floors, paint the master bedroom, cheap remodel the master bath and call it done" stage. We are both desiring to find land and start homesteading and the way this nation is going we are thinking this is an urgent need.

5 Weeks To A Clean and Organized Home wk2

Day 2 Week 2 ~ Living Room – Books, Magazines, Papers, Games

 Well, it is Tuesday and I am all caught up with what I missed in the Monday challenge. Woohoo! I enlisted Princess in the clutter war and I think it took a max of 30 minutes. Why did I wait for a "challenge" to do this? *shaking head*

Princess took cleaning a step farther and washed down the leather couch and my coffee and side tables. I won't go into what was found in the cracks of the couch needless to say I will be checking those areas a bit more frequently. Uh yeah.  

 Anywho,  today's challenge is to purge papers, books, magazines and games including video games. Begin by sorting through the paperwork and making piles or placing them in baskets. Perhaps sort by "trash", "shred", "file" and "keep for now"... that last one for me is usually things I want to copy to the computer/blog like recipes, DIY ideas and the like and once copied to the trash it goes! If there are bookcases or shelves now is the time to clean them. Dust the top, back, and sweep underneath if you can. You will be surprised at what you may find!

 I have a ton of mail to go through and file thanks to my surgery and I am not looking forward to that. I love getting mail but not when it comes as bills and those $$$$$ owed are such a painful memory. Yep, my ectopic surgery bill is in the 5 figures... SIGH. God will provide!

With the living room cleaned out of everything that doesn't "go" all papers, books and magazines are hiding in my bedroom. I recently purged my magazine collection by donating them to the local library. There is a stack of books on the bookcase waiting to make the same trip. The Wii games are nicely tucked in the TV hutch from when I had Hubby move it from the living room to our room. I picked up the computer CD's that were loose, stuck them back in the CD case and they found a home in the file cabinet next to the CPU.

 Well, besides ANOTHER good sweep the living room is well on its way to being clean!

I hope everyone is enjoying my rambling posts. Would love to hear some feedback if you are doing the challenge with me.

5 Weeks To A Clean and Organized Home wk2

Day 1 of Week 2 ~ The Living Room!

 

Once again we are working on the 5 wk challenge going on over at  Christian HomeKeeper™ Network!

Today we are tackling living rooms..well SUPPOSED to be. I am not feeling well this afternoon so I will make up for it in the morning. My living room is small and seems to be the dumping ground of the house. Currently there are 2 trash bags ready to go to the dump, pile of clean clothes awaiting their owners, more winter coats than I can count on the hooks, piles of shoes, a carseat waiting to be cleaned and replaced in the car, several laptops left out from school, books, papers, and JUNK!!!

If I was doing the challenge today I would be collecting anything that does not go in the living room, purging as needed, and hauling the rest to the room(s) it belongs in.

Hope everyone had a restful weekend! Lord willing, I will see you tomorrow and feel good enough to wage war on clutter!

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On a side note---

The kitchen is so much easier to use now that it is cleaned and organized! Hubby was able to unload our Costco trip's bounty with no help from me and it all fit! Nothing piled on the floor or in danger of falling off the pantry shelves. He is very impressed.
:)