Looking for support

[ElleJay]

I've decided that I'm sick of the house looking the way it is - and it's mostly due to the fact that we've still got boxes EVERYWHERE! So, I'm cleaning and throwing out alot of things! Clothes, paper, magazines, etc. You name it, I'm gonna decide what I'm gonna do with it. (And I'm actually excited to do this!)

So, here are my 'rules' for this massive challenge.

1) There will be 1 week allocated for the one area.
My areas are going to be as such (Being Wednesday to Wednesday)

i) Our bedroom.. I've already tossed out a bag of clothes that will never fit me ever again (size 8's and 10's - and they're sizes I never plan on being anymore - I'm comfortable with size 12's) and cleaned up the floor on my side of the bed. It's not much so far, but considering how many clothes I'd thrown out, it's alot!
In our bedroom, I'm going to allocate a day for cleaning up the floor, vaccuum, throw out things I don't use (or put them aside to sell on eBay). Next day I will clean up the wardrobe, sit down and empty out all the crates that are full of clothes and throw out what I know I'm not going to use (and empty out DHs clothes in those and get him to decide what he's gonna do with his - then he can throw them out or whatnot) and clean out the top of the wardrobe shelves too. The day after would be general tidying up, and the last couple of days will be allocated to the ensuite (etc, cleaning the toilet, mopping the floor, cleaning the shower, throwing out the stuff we don't need, cleaning the sink) Also, in those last days, clean up our tv cabinet we have in our bedroom - finding homes for the DVDs in there and the stuff just thrown on the cabinet.
If it goes over a week, I'll slap my wrist I doubt it will, but I'm giving myself plenty of time.

ii)Living Room/Theatre.
I'll need a week to just get through the damn box that's in there! We've got a box that we've got no idea what's in it! And the box isn't a small one, it's the box our 32 inch TV came in (I just looked at the dimensions on the box and it said (L x W x H) 885 x 280 x 680 (mm)
I'm also gonna re-arrange some of the things around. Just not the big stuff like our tv cabinet etc.

iii) Dining Room/Kitchen
As we've got an open planned kitchen/dining, this is going to be a HUGE job! We've got yet another massive box in the dining room which has lots of DVDs, CDs and books. We've got a jam packed bookcase too, which I wanna go through (alot of it is DHs class work, which I'm sure he'd need to keep).
In the kitchen, I wanna clean out the cupboards, wipe them out, rearrange the pots and pans and plates and find a home for DS bottles, and constantly keep up with the maintaining the dishes and cleaning the sink. Also, in both dining and kitchen, mopping the floor.

iv) Spare Room/DS room/Laundry
Basically just a tidy up. We have a few things in the cupboard in the spare room which I know we won't use, so I'm ditching those (or if they're in great condition, I'll sell them) and vaccuum.
DS room, sorting out where to put his teddies he got from everyone when he was born - we used our dishwasher box as a big toy box for him, which I'm going to go through and actually get the cloth nappies out and start learning how to use them (any help would be appreicated - point me in the right direction!!) and push his bassinette up against the wall, cause it's currently in the middle of the room.
Laundry/Toilet, just a general tidy up. Go through the linen cupboards, wash the clothes in our dirty laundry (which I guess I'll tackle each day, as long as it's not raining!) and mop floors.

v) Study/Bathroom
Our study is gonna be the biggest job, as we've got 3/4 boxes in there full of stuff we don't know of. Going to go through the small bookshelf there and see what we can do about tidying it up. Again, throw away stuff that we don't want to keep/not going to do anything bout. Possibly set up the computer in a different spot (even though it's not working right now) and find some CD roms that are missing.
The bathroom will be a general tidy up, where I get rid of what I don't use, mop the floors, clean the bath, sink and shower recess.

2) If I haven't decided what I'm going to do in 10 seconds, it's being thrown out regardless of importance!

3) If there's something that I can't decide on, or that is DH's, I will put it to the side until DH gets home from work, then I will do whatever with it.

4) I will be only doing 1 to 2 hours a day, as I don't want to get too worn out (I've been getting really tired and worn out very easily lately and don't want to push myself)

5) I will put DS in his walker while I am doing it all, and if he starts grizzling, I will leave him for 5 minutes. If he continues to grizzle, I will pick him up and give him a cuddle and then put him back in. If he still goes on, I will stop until he's settled down. I will also do things while he's asleep, but not if it's been the day after I've worked a night shift.

6) I will NOT be doing anything before I go to work. Unless I can sit down to do it (ie. Emptying out crates/boxes). I've already said to DH that I will not be doing anything on the days I have to work which I feel is fair enough.

7) If I find something that I was going to do something with (ie. Items I wanted to keep from our honeymoon, things from the wedding) excluding wedding cards and baby cards, I will put them in a shoe box and if I haven't done anything with them in a month, I will throw them out.

And they are my rules.

I guess I'm doing it because I'm sick and tired (as I said before) of how it looks, because I'm embarrased when people come over and see the house the way it is because I can't be bothered doing things (unfortunately it's all the time too) and I'm aiming for a few things by doing it. Finding things I've lost, showing off a nice house etc.
The thing that I love the most - my MIL is really wishing me luck for this. And it's what's willing me to do it even more. We've always gotten along, so this is making me happy to do this and her be happy that I'm doing it.
I'm also very, very proud of myself for doing this - and am really excited to be doing this as I know that alot of the people in my family wouldn't believe I could do it (including DH, who's sceptical that I'll last 1 day)
I also figured that if I kept a log on here, it would will me more and more and more to get it done and treat myself on good work by playing my Facebook games

Anyways, wish me luck!!!!
I will continually post updates on what I did each day. And, because I'm working tomorrow (Thursday night) I will only be doing a crate from my wardrobe.

[ElleJay]

Updated 12:40am

DS has just gone to sleep, and I was going to get some more done, but suddenly got tired.

What was done today (Wednesday)
* Clothes sorted and thrown into 'donation' bags
* Floor on my side cleaned
* DS clothes sorted into crate (we have no drawers for him)
* Clean clothes put away

To be done tomorrow (Thursday)

* As I'm working Thursday night, I'm only going to be sorting things from the crate in the wardrobe.

[visitor11]

Updated 12:40am

DS has just gone to sleep, and I was going to get some more done, but suddenly got tired.

What was done today (Wednesday)
* Clothes sorted and thrown into 'donation' bags
* Floor on my side cleaned
* DS clothes sorted into crate (we have no drawers for him)
* Clean clothes put away

To be done tomorrow (Thursday)

* As I'm working Thursday night, I'm only going to be sorting things from the crate in the wardrobe.

[visitor11]

Well Done - you'll get there!

[didispunk]

Well done!!! You will feel so much better!

[Fleur]

Thta's awesome! I sooo need to do something like this, but it feels a bit overwhelming
I like the 'one area at a time' plan of attack.

[Arimeh]

Yeah I so need to do this too. Good luck honey - you can do it!

Soon you will be on your way to a clean, organised place of residence.

Maybe I should ban myself for a month from BB - that helped last time I wanted to get my place organised.. LOL

[~clover~]

I'm trying to get myself organised like that at the moment too. Keeping up with the everyday housework is hard enough, so I do most of mine when DH is home on the weekends & can help.
Should see my pile out the front for council clean up.... Its the biggest in town! lol
Good luck hun

[~Kim~]

Sounds like a great plan LJ....it's addictive though - once you get into it, you won't want to stop.....my DH is wary of his possessions these days lol.

[Footsteps]

good luck...you can do it - something i find helps cleaning is to some music on my music player and i just get it done and time seems to fly. hope your ok huni xox

[~Trish~]

Well done Liz, you're doing great!

My DH took the boys away for the long weekend last weekend so I got stuck into the house without all the distractions, it was awesome and I got everything done in 3 solid days of work . I just worked on one room at a time, I made sure I did each room properly before moving on to the next one. It isn't as overwhelming if you work on one area at a time.

Keep it up, you'll love yourself for it soon!

[Jahzara]

Go LJ ! You can do it !

xo

[Cherished]

Holly Molly LJ you are so inspiring!!! You go girl

Well I'll keep you company over the weekend and we can check in with eachother as to the progress

My list to complete Fri-Mon...
1) Clean windows outside house and a few indoors ones (luckily the are not tooooo dirty)
2) Tidy kitchen cupboards
3) Clean out car
4) Washing and ironing
5) Tidy bubs room
6) vacuum and mop floors

That should be enough for one weekend heck it's already 10 x more than I usually do lol If you are still on your mission next weekend I will make anothe rlist

[Party-of-five]

good on you!!! good luck and dont do too much you dont want to wear yourself out

[Cherished]

How did you go today hon? I'm mega impressed with myself and can't believe I was up and at it from 7am - 4:30. I kinda think I may have over done it physically but heck once it's done than it's done and I can relax!

My list to complete Fri-Mon...
1) Clean windows outside house and a few indoors ones (luckily the are not tooooo dirty) Completed
2) Tidy kitchen cupboards
3) Clean out car Completed
4) Washing and ironing Half done
5) Tidy bubs room
6) vacuum and mop floors Half done

[sangie]

Good on you hon! You'll feel such a sense of achievement when its all done!

I'm tackling our place too. I have a list and I give myself one task to do on the days when I'm not busy with other things. Today I did my pantry and I have to admit I've looked in it a billion times this afternoon because it looks so neat and tidy lol!

Good luck with it!

[Queen]

Well done hun!
I was going to say on Facebook they have buy and sell Mandurah, have a looky there you can sell stuff on there to locals (no fees)
Good luck, you are inspiring!

[ElleJay]

Thankyou everyone

cherished1 - Today I haven't done anything, but that's because I went to visit a friend at hospital after she had a her bub on Wednesday. Plus, I worked last night and didn't feel up to doing anything this morning.
I'm JUST finishing eating and will be going through a box and trolley tonight before going to bed.

Queen, thanks, I'll definitely have to look into it!