Recovering the Living Room Part 2

I realized that yesterday I didn't post my checklist before I talked about my living room.  It wouldn't be a big deal, except that is the MOST important part of my routine.  If I don't do my daily checklist, then my end result in a day will just be one little area picked up.  

Now, don't get me wrong, one little area is SOOO much better then nothing, but that will only be good for one day.  Plus, with each passing day, the areas before will build back up with junk and dirt and will no longer take just a few minutes to complete.

So, before I forget, on the days I worked in the living room, I did my daily checklist before I moved on to a new area.

1.  Make bed.
2.  Get dressed (shoes)
3.  Starting at bedside table and going around the room I picked up clothes, clutter, trash, and things that didn't belong in the room (taken to the rooms where they did).
4.  I picked up the bathroom floor and counters.
5.  Changed the roll of toilet paper.
6.  Did one weekly task in the bathroom.
7.  Started a load of laundry (came back to put in drier/hang to dry and to fold one load).
8.  Wiped down table and benches.
9.  Swept the dining area floor.
10.  Emptied the trash.
11.  Looked over the areas I had picked up in the living room already to be sure they hadn't collected new clutter or trash.

On the next days, I continued around the room tackling each section in order.  

On day two I tackled the recliner area.  This included cleaning up behind and under the recliner.  I didn't move it, but I did pick up all the junk.  My kids often use the corner behind the recliner as a hide-out area, and they had left quite a few things behind.  There were also lots of little 'treasures' under the chair that are very noticeable if someone reclines in the chair, so I had to get those, too.

Day three I worked on the couches and corner table.  I DID NOT pull out the couches or worry about what was under them.  My mother had actually just done that on her last trip to visit, so I knew it wasn't too bad under there.  Plus, moving furniture takes a LOT of energy (which I was trying to conserve).  

The part that took the most is behind the corner table.  Apparently, while I was sick in bed, my children had made a habit of getting into our candy and then throwing the wrappers behind that table.  Hmph.  There were also a number of unsigned masterpiece drawings behind there, some books, toys, and of course socks.  Do you find socks behind your corner table?  No?  Okay maybe it's just our house, then.

Day four I was kinda dreading.  Tackling the entertainment center.  Ours should be renamed clutter central.  The center we have is REALLY pretty, but a poor design (at least for us).  It has four REALLY deep shelves that I think are designed for various media contraptions (DVD players, VCR, etc).  Then, it has little doors (which would be GREAT for hiding clutter, except they are glass...).  

When we put our DVD player in it, we realized that the remote would not work through the glass, so we put all our contraptions on TOP of the TV stand.  That left four shelves on which to put DVD's and VCR tapes.  Great!  Except the part where they are so deep that they hold THREE deep rows of DVD's all on ONE shelf.  So, if you want a DVD from the back, and you are 4, you will likely pull all the ones in front of it out and leave them there.  

This means there was a POOL of DVD's in front of the TV stand.  I couldn't simply make a little pile and move on.  This was one of the few places I DID SOMETHING.  I found little bins and stuck the DVD's in them and then put the bins back on the shelves.  The bins were something we already had in our toy room.  They were supposed to be holding toys, but since there had been little to no cleaning in there in a LOOOONG time, the toys weren't in the bins.  So, I stole them.

Day five was the easiest of the days (well sort of).  There was no 'special' cleaning or areas to work on.  So, I made my kids help.  This cut down on my effort level, but certainly not on time, and not much on stress either.  It was a good chance to have them join in the 'fun' however.

Finally on day six, I was able to say I was 'done' with the living room.  I finished up by running the feather duster over surfaces and the vacuum cleaner over the carpets (not behind or underneath any furniture except the coffee table).

Whew.  This was a BIG task, but it was the most rewarding up until then since everyone got to see the result.

Thanks for stopping by!

God Bless,
Lisa

Cleaning up the Living Room {and purposely skipping a few rooms}

You are probably figuring that the logical next room was the kitchen.  And, you would be right.  The kitchen in our home is actually part of the same big room as the dining room, so it would be the logical next spot on the list.

But, the thought of tackling the kitchen was overwhelming to me.  It was also likely to make me sick.  For some reason, the smell of dish soap made me very nauseated, and my husband had agreed to take over the job for awhile.  I have since found a soap that didn't make me ill (thank you scent free!), but at the time I wasn't even trying to figure out how to take over the job.

I also skipped over the office/sitting area/school area/collects lots of junk area that used to be the formal dining room and sits between the dining room and living room.  It had TOO MUCH going on and I got overwhelmed trying to figure out where to start, so I waited on that room, too.

If you happen to be reading this because you yourself are in a similar spot, don't be afraid to focus on the easy rooms first.  Getting those out of the way will really boost your confidence and help the harder rooms seem easier in the end.

My living room is a very average living room (or so I like to think).  We have a couple couches, a recliner, entertainment area, and a small book shelf area with toys and such for the kids.  Actually, the bookshelf is specifically where I put the girls' trays for school now, but at that moment we weren't doing school, so it had toys.

Living rooms can seem a little daunting because they are pretty big and they have a large space in the center.  They are also used by everyone, so they are likely to be a dumping ground for lots of items that don't belong there.  The nice part about living rooms is that most things don't belong there, so it's fairly easy to kick them out.

I started directly to the left of the doorway.  In our case, that is where the bookshelf is.  Unlike my other rooms, I did have to do some more serious picking up.  I also had to make some decisions.  I started at the top of the bookshelf and decided what items could stay there and which could not.  We didn't really have a set 'these toys go here' policy before I got sick because I would rotate toys.  So, I had to decide which toys would be there for now.

My children have a knack for drawing one or two lines on a paper and then tossing their unsigned masterpiece on a shelf or table.  I found TONS of them on this shelf.  I threw them out (don't worry, there are tons and tons of other masterpieces that I save on a daily basis).  I also found books, pens, crayons, little Legos, and lots of other random things that clearly didn't belong there.  That made my job easier.  

It probably took me a solid 20 minutes to clear that shelf.  I sent the toys that weren't staying upstairs with my kids and called it a day.

Though it certainly needed to be done, I DIDN'T pull the shelf out and clean behind it.  I didn't dust the lamp right next to it, and I didn't vacuum the dust bunnies that had gathered in the corner next to it.  Those projects were for another day.

God Bless!
Lisa