The clock was ticking. After finding out on Thursday that I would need to open my front door and welcome Paula Faris and Joanna Stern of ABC World News into my home the following Tuesday . . . I had been steadily working through my How to Clean a Messy House Checklist.
Finally . . . Monday happened. In case you are Days-of-the-Week Challenged, Monday meant Tuesday was less than 24 hours away.
I came home from the gym on Monday morning, and saw this:
And I sighed a little happy sigh.
Pretty good for a starting place. Actually, it was pretty good for any time around here.
I did some basic picking up for our church home group the night before, and had been doing my best to stay on top of the kitchen so it wouldn’t be a big job to tackle.
But now was the time to work through the nitty gritty on the prioritization checklist.
On the actual ten step checklist, steps 5 and 6 are to clean the kitchen and bathrooms. Then, in Step 7, I deep clean each room in order of priority.
The idea behind putting kitchen and bathrooms first is that they are generally the most difficult/detailed/time-consuming rooms to clean. I tackle them on their own and then maintain them so cleaning them as part of step 7 is fairly painless.
Because I only had one day to get through steps 5-10, I combined steps 5-7.
I went through each room and worked through my list of specific tasks. As I left a room, the only things left to be done were dusting and vacuuming. Those are steps 8 and 9.
My goal was to be done with everything except dusting, vacuuming and mopping the kitchen by noon. I didn’t have much hope this would happen.
I started at 8:46.
I knocked down cobwebs, cleaned ceiling fans, and dusted my dining room chandelier.
I scrubbed out my messy fridge and excessively-splattered microwave.
By the way, I used the Clutter Cleaner spray and sponge to clean the microwave and it worked great!
Like a cleaning robot, I plowed through the list, crossing off item by item. I purged the pantry, straightened bookshelves and cleaned the front glass door.
And wondered again and again why I don’t do days like this on a regular basis. I can’t describe the amazing impact a day of laser-focus has on my home.
By 1:06, I had crossed everything off of my prioritization worksheet.
Then it was time to go through the house (again, in order of priority) dusting. Then vacuuming. Finally, I mopped the kitchen.
By the time I picked up the kids from school, the house was pretty much ready for anything.
(You do know that “the house” means everything EXCEPT the master bedroom and the boys’ room, right?)
Whew.
Tomorrow, I’ll share about the day Paula came.
I am so thrilled with your progress! I love this series. I am motivated to try it out myself (though there’s no Paula, here!) and I am definitely sharing this with my Mom.
I strongly encourage you to do this again with us–by Christmas, ‘Kay? Cause Christmas morning is sort of a “Paula,” isn’t it?
It totally is!
Link to the interview please!!!! What app did you use??? I am on pins and needles here! 🙂
Ceri, it’s at http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2013/11/3-tips-to-help-you-stick-to-your-grocery-budget/
So excited for you! Love your blog!!
Oh my goodness! That was amazing! You basically deep cleaned your house in a day?
AFTER de-trashing, decluttering and creating a plan of attack, yes!
Just went to that link and watched it. You did a GREAT job!!!!
Your house looked awesome too. Way to go, famous person. 🙂
Oh my word, your cleaning tips saved sooooooo much stress and embarrassment this week. I’ve been “working the steps” with the dishes, sweeping, etc. (ps thanks for including the fact that you should actually pick up the shoes and grocery bags on the floor and not just sweep around them…who knew?), and I even started a weekly cleaning schedule. So the house wasn’t THAT bad, but I did have to do a full out cleaning because my parents were coming for a few days. I was on a roll, but slipped into one of my old habits: cleaning an area because I had just noticed how atrocious it was, even though no one was going to see it. I literally heard your voice telling me to get back to priorities and stop vacuuming the baseboards under my husband’s desk (which reminds me, I should go back and deal with those dust elephants I found). Anyway, while my parents were here, I came down with a terrible stomach bug. The blessing was that because I knew I had cleaned out the fridge and the baby’s room, I could give directions to my mom from the couch (not the bed because you know I didn’t even get to that mess yet), without the embarrassment of her opening the wrong cabinet in the kitchen, seeing the remains of a mystery container in the fridge, or having an avalanche of diaper boxes fall on her. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Oh this comment makes me soooo happy!! Go you! (And I hope you’re feeling better!)
Dust Elephants! Ha ha ha. Yes! Relate. Relate. Relate.
I love this honest and relatable approach to tackling a messy house! It’s so refreshing to see real-life strategies that don’t make cleaning feel like an impossible task. Your checklist is a great way to stay focused and motivated, especially when it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Thanks for sharing your tips—I’m excited to put them to use and finally get in the cleaning zone
I love this cleaning checklist — it’s exactly what I need to stay on track when the house starts feeling overwhelming. Breaking tasks into smaller steps really makes it feel doable instead of daunting. Getting organized like this also frees up time for the fun stuff, like planning a getaway! I’ve been comparing Edisto Beach rentals and Edisto Island vacation rentals for a future trip, and having a clean, settled home beforehand makes the whole vacation prep feel so much better.