Monday, October 27, 2008

Cool Giveaway

Check this giveaway out!

Who Wants A Clean House???

I am feeling pretty messy lately. My house is not to it’s normal level of clean. Granted, I’ve never had a spotless house but it has generally been tidy. This is frustrating to me because I KNOW that I can do more than I have been doing around here. November marks the new year for me and I don’t want to enter my 34th year in disarray.

That being said, I have 5 days to get my stuff together. I will concentrate on one room per day. Each room will be worked on in small 15 minute bursts of “energy” as that is all I can offer!

Monday – Kitchen
Tuesday – Living Room
Wednesday – Bathrooms/bedroom
Thursday – Office
Friday – Kitchen AGAIN!

I will do one load of laundry per day as well. If anyone wants to come clean at my house, you’re more than welcome.

Would anyone like to see before & after photos? I’m a bit of a voyeur when it comes to messes. I like seeing pictures of messy rooms and then seeing them all cleaned up and pretty. If anyone shows an interest, I will post those pictures this week.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

A Frugal Tour - The Master Bath

So today is bathroom cleaning day on the big "fall cleaning" schedule. I started in the master bathroom as it is the one most used by me. I cleaned the sink, sprinkled stuff in the toilet, and sprayed down the shower to soak. Then I started on the big stuff like scrubbing the door and the walls.

While cleaning this very small room, I came to a realization. Most everything that we own and truly love is second or even third hand. Much of it was rescued from landfills. For instance, let's take a tour of my bathroom.

The first thing you see as you enter my bathroom is the shower curtain. It is a nice, very modern one from Target. I got it from Freecycle along with the coordinating and oh so thick bathmat. The shower curtain does not cover a shower though, it is a curtain for the window. This bathroom has a glass shower door so I did not need a shower curtain but I did need a curtain to block the view of the neighbor's house.

Directly to the right is the sink. Above which is a 3 door wooden medicine chest. I found it on trash day a few years ago. It smelled musty for about a week but it sure looks better than the regular sized medicine chest that was in there!

Next to the slightly larger than sink sized counter is a white washed cabinet. Truth be told, it is an old solid wood entertainment center that Hubby found at a dumpster while he was living in Oklahoma City back in 1996 or so. It has served numerous jobs in my home and has recently received it's first paint job (was just unfinished wood) in a streaky white washed look that goes well with the bathroom. This piece holds various baskets full of hair and makeup things. Most all of the containers came from trash and yard sales. There is a mini Lane cedar chest that I was given as a high school senior, a Tupperware brand 3 level candy dish that my mom got free when she worked for the Tupperware factory back around 1990, a green box given to my eldest for her birthday, and a few others. I did buy the set of 4 wooden boxes for insanely cheep at a store similar to Kirklands.

Next to this cabinet is the toilet. Above which is a white "over the john" cabinet that my beloved rescued on it's way to the dumpster when we lived in Florida. It is a white enamel and I love it! On top of this, at nearly ceiling level, I keep my angels that the girls purchased for me when they were little. This is a seriously culled down collection. I got rid of angels from everyone else and kept only the ones from my girls.

On the opposite wall, is the shower. Nothing special there.

Soon this room will be painted. I'm sure it will be something to coordinate with the shower curtain and the bedroom so probably a shade of brown or something. Of course, that will be purchased at the paint store where we get mis-tints for $1 per gallon.

I hope you enjoyed your virtual tour of my bathroom. Let me know if you enjoyed this and we can do more tours of other rooms in the house.

Fall Cleaning Schedule

For people with a chronic illness, cleaning is not always easy. Add a procrastinating perfectionist into the mix and well, you get someone who gets easily frustrated with the cleaning and will put off the duties.

I work part time, from home, allowing me to keep my health in check. However, I will often let days or even weeks go by without doing any housework (because of pain) and before I know it, I am overwhelmed. In order to get myself into some sort of a routine, I have begun my "Fall Cleaning Schedule". The goal is to work on one room per day and the next day move on to the next room. I will circle through the house this way and eventually, I will just have a minor dust and vacuum in the rooms each day (in theory).

Days will be not be labeled Monday, Tuesday...Etc because some days I won't feel like doing anything. This is OKAY. I will just pick up where I left off the next day. It may take me 9 days to get the first pass done through the house and that is also okay. I won't beat myself up over this or feel that I am a failure.

Yesterday I started with the master bedroom. It is now nice and tidy, dusted and vacuumed. It isn't perfect but it is very nice. Next time I will delve into more of the sorting and organizing in the room.

Today is the master bathroom. I'm half way finished. I will try to complete the basic cleaning in there today and will move to organization next week.

I'm happy with this plan. I think my husband approves as well. He was happy to see the top of his dresser again!

Did You Miss Me?

It seems that I tend to go through phases where I do not post to this blog. I've often though of just getting rid of it but quite honestly, I like having my posts here. I will be back to posting here soon, I promise.