Cleaning the House After An Illness: Finally Starting

Okay, enough talking and planning, let's start talking about what I did.  I am pretty sure I built it up to be way more then I should have, lol!

Day One

The very first thing I did was to GET OUT OF BED.  I promise it gets more exciting.  But, when you are sick that is sometimes a big deal all in itself. 

My next step was equally as exciting...I made the bed.  

I know many of you are thinking-well duh.  But, if you happen to be {like I was} recovering from a long illness, or simply trying to start out on a new cleaning routine, this really is a big step.

I wanted to start my cleaning journey right in the room where I was.  I wanted to SEE the changes and have them affect me.  I hoped it would motivate me to go farther.  I also didn't want to have to walk ALL THE WAY across the house to get to the place I wanted to clean, because on some days that would take a large chunk of my energy.  

I got dressed after making my bed.  I even put on shoes.  I don't like to feel dirt and clutter under my feet when I clean up.  It discourages me.

Then I turned to my bedside table area.  Like I said, I started right by me.  Being in bed for awhile means that lots of things accumulate next to the bed that shouldn't be there.  A few plates, a few cups, some trash, empty medicine bottles, books, I am sure you can imagine.  

I didn't take any photos, but below is the current space.  This isn't an after photo.  This is a today photo.  Even after I picked up that first day, it looked nothing like this.  But, I wanted to show you how small of an area we are talking about.

My goals were to 1. Pick up any trash in the area.  2.  Pick up any dishes and take them to the sink.  3.  Pick up anything that didn't belong there and already had a home.  

Number three is very specific.  If an item already had a place it was supposed to go (for example a book that belonged on the bookshelf) then I would pick it up.  I made a pile of the things that had places to go.  I was NOT, however, decluttering.  

Specifically, there was a bag of items that had no home in the corner and a pile of Christmas gifts (this was before Christmas) right next to my dresser.  Neither of the clutter items belonged in that space, but finding them a space would have created another level of work.  Trying to take care of those items may have derailed the entire plan, so they stayed there.

I was also not cleaning.  What I mean by that is my bedside table and lamp had dust on it and the floor could have used a vacuum.  On this first day of recovering the house, I was doing neither one.  I was simply picking up and straightening the area.

Oh, and there were some books on top of my bedside table that belonged IN my bedside table.  However, my bedside table was completely full of other stuff.  I, again, was NOT decluttering, so they were stacked neatly on top of the table for now.

Believe it or not, it looked a TON better just by picking up the junk, trash, dishes, dirty clothes, and throw pillows of the floor.  No it wasn't completely done, but there was a noticeable difference.  The items that needed to to be put away I asked the kids to take to the right rooms.  And the bits of clutter that remained were placed in an orderly pile next to the wall.

And, that was the end of the first day's work.  

I know you are likely thinking that wasn't a days worth of work.  But, it was. I think it took as much as 20 minutes from when I got out of bed until when I had finished picking up the last item next to my bed.  

One thing I also did from day one was to put a load of laundry in the washer.  There was already tons of laundry in the laundry room, so I didn't have to drag anything in there.  I simply put one load in, and when it was done I put it in the drier.  I didn't fold anything.

It was hard to stop there.  The entire house was in need of cleaning, but I knew if I kept going I would get too tired or too sick and it would end in failure.  I had to remind myself that I hadn't done ANYTHING for almost 2 months, and that the house could wait a few more days.  

If I haven't bored you yet, come back tomorrow for day two.

God Bless,
Lisa

If you would like to read my plan from the beginning, start here.