Tag Archives: Office

August 7, 2014 · 10:29 pm

Monthly Cleaning Fun!

monthly cleaning

A year ago I wrote a post entitled “Cleaning Up and Cleaning Out”. It was about starting a deep cleaning/full house clean out system of focusing on one room each month. I said I was going to follow-up each month, and I didn’t. BUT, I did make it the entire year which felt AMAZING. And now since it’s August, the year starts over! I envision this year being a lot easier since things are already pretty cleaned out and I have a list and know what works and what doesn’t.

This is the plan I followed for last year, and will follow again this year. I chose certain rooms/areas based on how busy a certain month would be and the weather. Obviously, we have a small house and many of you have more rooms, or different rooms, but to give you an idea, here’s the plan I follow:

  • August: Office/Craft room
  • September: Living Room
  • October: Guest Room
  • November: Entry, Guest Bath (November is a busy month for us with our anniversary and Thanksgiving, so I chose small rooms!)
  • December: Laundry Room (Again, busy month!)
  • January: Master Bedroom
  • February: Master Bathroom
  • March: Garage, Cars (The weather is nice for these!)
  • April: Patio, Landscape, House Exterior (Nice weather and plants/landscaping stuff for sale!)
  • May: Kitchen
  • June: Emergency Preparedness

This system worked SO WELL. At this point I am unemployed and have no kids, so I know my life isn’t as crazy as most and I know that as things change it may become more difficult to accomplish. But I think it’s such a great goal and makes you feel really good at the end of each month, and year!

So, for August the room is the Office/Craft Room (also where Oliver hangs out all day). I’ve made a PDF of the Office Checklist I use, but again, we all have different furniture, etc. so it may not all apply to you, but it’s a start to get you thinking about what your needs are! (Feel free to ask about any of the items that you’re unclear on!) Last year we rented a carpet steamer and did all the carpeted areas at once for the year. Again, the goal is to deep clean AND clean out/organize. I’m trying to set a goal for myself to get rid of at least 10 things per room, we’ll see how that goes!….

Let me know if you get on board with this system and how it works for you! I’ll update in September with the checklist for the living room.

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September 8, 2013 · 8:59 pm

Cleaning Month 1: Office/Craft Room

Month One of cleaning is finished and our office/craft room is very clean and organized! I love that feeling. We started off the cleaning by renting a steam cleaner and cleaning all the carpets in the house. That was a lot more work than I thought! (Though the hubby did most of it…, thanks, babe!). So in awe, and disgusted, by how dirty the water was coming up. Ugh. So gross. But I know that unless you steam clean every day, they’re just going to get like that. Nice knowing they’re a bit cleaner, for now.

Another big project I tackled in this room was the closet. When we moved in I didn’t really do much to it, just tried to bring simple organization. But it has bothered me ever since then and I took this opportunity to really do something. I was limited in time and budget, so it’s not perfect, but definitely better!

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Wow! Looking back at the Before pictures makes me cringe. Can’t believe I let it get that bad. All I purchased to organize things were those two black drawer containers and the two black baskets on the top shelf. One of our biggest issues was our wrapping paper and gift bags. That whole gifting area had gotten completely out of control. So I used one of my new black things to put gift bags, ribbon, tissue paper, and boxes in. Then my wonderful hubby built me a holder for the wrapping paper rolls.

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So much better!!  (Also, I’ve tried and tried to get the pictures bigger, but they want to stay small. No idea what’s wrong there.)

Here is the full list of everything I cleaned and cleaned out/organized. You obviously have to tailor it for your specific room needs, but it’s what I did:

  • Steam cleaned the floor
  • Dusted the fan (did this before cleaning the floor…)
  • Cleaned the windows, inside and out
  • Dusted the blinds (I used a wet cloth and that worked really well)
  • Dusted the closet shelves
  • Dusted all the shelves/desk/etc.
  • Cleaned the door knobs (with disinfectant wipes. Probably need to get in the habit of doing that more often!)
  • Cleaned the baseboards and trim (I used dryer sheets because that’s a “trick” I’ve seen in Pinterest. Not sure it it’s the best way or not, but it works for me!)
  • Cleaned the walls (I used the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser- my first time to use those and I am in love! Best product ever.)
  • Touched up the baseboards and trim.
  • Touched up the walls.
  • Cleaned/touched up the doors. (Again, Magic Eraser)
  • Disinfected the light switch (So gross. Definitely want to do that more often.)
  • Cleaned and touched up the window sill (Oliver sits and lays his head on that allll day, so it had gotten pretty gross)
  • Wiped off/dusted frames
  • Caught up on our shredding (we let that get way out of control)
  • Cleaned out/organized the closet
  • Cleaned out/organized the desk
  • Cleaned out/organized the filing cabinet
  • Cleaned out/organized the bookshelf and craft shelf
  • Cleared off/updated my bulletin board
  • Updated the decor

The room for September is the Living Room! Already been working on it some. Will update on that in a month!

See Related:

Cleaning Plan

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