Finishing the master bedroom took me 2 additional days. Each day began with the prior day's work.
I made the bed.
I got dressed (with shoes).
I checked the bedside table, the area beside the bed, the dresser, the entertainment center and the floor in front of the bed for clothes, trash, and things that didn't belong there. 5 minutes (max) to do all of that.
On day 5, I cleaned up the area by our changing table (we keep it in our room because I do not like to climb up and down the stairs to change a diaper). This area stayed pretty clean since DH would change DD while I sick, so it just took a couple minutes to straighten the clothes and shoes on the shelves below.
Next to the changing table is our closet. With past cleaning plans, I would have started pulling everything out to organize it. Of course, it would have taken me DAYS to complete the job and created so many other additional jobs that it would take a long time to actually clean out the closet.
I would have had to find places to store the things we were keeping, and (most time consuming) sell the stuff we didn't want anymore. The selling would require me taking pictures, listing the items on eBay or Facebook swaps, and generally spending a TON of time 'cleaning' the closet while the rest of my house fell down on top of me. Side note...YES, I do donate a lot of stuff we don't want anymore, but I pay for our kids' new clothes by selling the old, so it is important that I at least sell the very best items.
I DO think it is very important to reduce clutter in the house. But, I realized that if I decluttered the closet and had a dirty house, no one would call that cleaning except me! I needed to start doing things that would clean the house BEFORE I could declutter.
So, I picked up the area next to DH's side of the bed (in front of the closet) and I.....CLOSED THE CLOSET DOOR. Was it cleaner behind the door? Nope. Did the room look cleaner? Yep. Did I create a bunch of more projects? Nope. I was not trying to ignore the closet forever. I was simply being realistic about my current situation. I needed to get the most noticeable results with the least amount of energy spent. Project success.
At that point, my bedroom was actually finished! Not clean (as in dusted or vacuumed) and not decluttered, but still finished. It was completely picked up!! It only took 5 days to get there, lol! The me before I was sick would not have been proud of that 5 days, but I most certainly was!
On day 6, I considered my various options, but decided to go ahead and complete the clean. I washed the comforter and sheets, did a basic feather duster dust of the surfaces that were clear, and I ran the vacuum.
6 days and I had it generally clean. Not decluttered, but it still looked 100% better. And the best part? I could get it back to looking that way in less then 5 minutes. I was a very happy camper!
The laundry, however, was still backing up. I'll explain how I dealt with that tomorrow.
God Bless,
Lisa
If you would like to read my house recovery from the start, check out my first post here.
2 comments:
I assume you are also doing things like cooking and dishes and the like, right?
No, I was not doing the dishes. My husband was. The cooking was also minimal (frozen lasagna, pizzas, etc). I did add all that back in, but not at first. Dish soap actually made me sick (still does, but thankfully I found the scent free stuff), and since DH had offered to do that chore, I let him until I was ready to take over.
If I didn't have him I would have turned to paper plates until I could stomach doing the dishes and put forth the effort.
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