During the month of April, I’m encouraging my readers to participate in a 30-Day House Cleaning Challenge (read more here, if you missed my announcement about this challenge last week). Every week day morning at 9 a.m., I’ll post the daily project and every evening around 6 p.m. EST, I’ll post an update and link-up.
April 4, 2013 Project
Your project for today is to surface clean extra rooms (laundry room, office, etc.)
I decided to clean my laundry room and worked on cleaning the washer & dryer, floor, walls, and door. {I already did my project yesterday since I’m headed to the Midwest Homeschool Convention today!}
Come back here at 6 p.m. EST and I’ll show you pictures of my cleaning accomplishments and have a linky so you can link up yours, too!
What room are you planning to tackle today?
Join in the Chatter
::Want to blog about this challenge? If you’re blogging through this challenge with me, be sure to leave your link to your direct post on the daily check-ins. Plus, if you’d like to post your daily posts to the 30-Day House Cleaning Challenge Pinterest Group, just shoot me an email (moneysavingmom @ gmail dot com) and I’ll invite you.
::Want to follow along on Twitter or Instagram? I’ll also be sharing some of my cleaning pictures on my Facebook Page, my Twitter account, and my Instagram account. I’d love to have you do the same or join in the discussion on Twitter and Instagram. Just follow hashtag #Cleanin30 to see what others are tweeting and Instagramming about this challenge!
Kelsey A says
The only extra room we have is the laundry room and since that’s already clean I decided to just do a bunch of laundry.
Jenna says
I decided to take a look at my laundry room. I am by nature super organized and do surface cleaning once a week or so, so my laundry room is clean. However I decided to clean the washer and dryer themselves, which led to taking apart the entire lint tray area and cleaning all of that. It was pretty disgusting in there, so maybe I should clean that once a year.
Maegen says
Having a specific job every day has been a huge help to me.
However, I will confess that I am having to expand the, “Surface cleaning,” for the living room and bedrooms over multiple days.
We just have tons of clutter everywhere, and it takes me waaaay longer than the allotted time to gather things and return them to their places.
Anyone else finding this? I’m starting to think you all had pretty darn clean houses to start with! Still finding lots of inspiration! Keep it coming!
Angie F. says
Nope, not as clean as I’d like here while home schooling and working PT. It’s been a long, busy winter! I’m confessing with you Maegen…first had to clear/find the top of my dresser and the small desk in the living room in order to dust and wipe them down! I live with three “men” who tend to drop whatever wherever they happen to be when they come in and no longer need it-or apparently just don’t know what to do with it, (especially on flat surfaces); mail, jackets, school stuff, batteries, dirty socks, you name it! I’ve tried to (re)train them, really I have. ‘sigh’
Had to run errands and work today and again tomorrow, so Saturday will have to be master bathroom and extra room catch up day. I plan to get all the boxes in the office sorted and organized to surprize hubby. He’ll be gone at his monthly Drill all day, but is working from home most weekdays now. We dumped everything extra from one side of the room (former guest/craft room) to the other in order to give him dedicated space for business and tax purposes. But now the clutter is bugging him. Usually it bugs me first, but I don’t spend as much time in there.
My laundry room, um, yeah, well, it’s as big as an average living room, and most of it is used for storage (linens/towels, bedding, sleeping bags, out of season clothing etc, any misc stuff that can’t be in the garage or attic), so can’t get to the floor much. Actually, it’s begging for new flooring, paint etc., so definately not even going to try to tackle that right now! Summer time project! I’ll be wiping the washer and dryer down, clearing out any bags of outgrown clothing, emptying the lint trap and calling that room good, for now.
I agree, it’s always nice to break down what could be a large, overwhelming cleaning and/or decluttering project into bite size pieces of time and effort. The daily sense of accomplishment as you check each thing (or something, anything) off your to do list, and start to see the change and improvements, however small, is more motivation to keep going! 😉
leslie says
Started my cleaning today and I was out of my favorite cleaner. So this is what I did….check it out!
http://simplymusicwise.blogspot.com/2013/04/homemade-all-purpose-house-cleaner-just.html
Kelly says
I’m finally home and settled in for the evening. I have a load of laundry going and pasta sauce simmering on the stove, and I’m going to start on the bonus room and plan to keep at it until my husband gets home. I put on comfy sweats and I’m going to start season three of a show I like. My girls have decided to start a sisters only “club” and they are coming up with the details, so hopefully they will stay busy and I’ll get some work done! : )
Stephanie says
Just curious, did you all clean every bedroom in your house yesterday? I have four bedrooms (1 master, 2 kids rooms and a guest). I focused on my master bedroom last night. Now that I think about it, I should have focused on at least the guest room too. Should I tackle the kids rooms today? My laundry room/coupon room stays pretty clean since my husband cleans it.
Luba says
Laundry room and study need work! Thank you, I will get on to them today. 🙂
Rebekah Williams says
My goal is the laundry ‘room’ if I can manage it, but my first task was tackling the pile of artwork my 5 year old has created over the past month or two. Trying to come up with a system to deal with this on a more routine basis… I also still need to vacuum the living room and clean the master bathroom but again, most of these tasks revolve around the napping baby!
Rivmom says
Since reading this blog a while ago I have started decluttering and cleaning areas of our house. Have not kept to your schedules but so far since Jan have done our home office which took a couple of hours each day for 3 days. I shredded so much paper I broke the shredder. My husband fixed it luckily. I have sorted our toys and books. Taken all the piles in the garage that needed to the recycle/dump center. Yesterday I cleaned our oven. I am feeling great about these things.
Crystal says
You are doing a great job!
Sara@Save Money, Live Joyfully says
I guess I’m kind of marching to my own beat in this challenge, but it’s definitely inspired me to get going on the projects I’ve been putting off 🙂
Yesterday I spent 5 hours decluttering and organizing our school room, which resulted in one trash bag each of trash, recycling, and yard sale/donate. It looks great now!
Today Junior has a therapy appointment so I’m going to do something a little less time consuming–the bathrooms are on my list!
Thanks for the encouragement and accountability. My husband keeps commenting on how nice the house looks 🙂
Crystal says
You are totally welcome to march to your own beat. I love people who aren’t afraid to be original. 🙂
K Quinn says
I’ll probably do the laundry room and home office. I cleaned the laundry room about a month ago. Then our dryer died. That made me mad so I junked it again as I worked around the situation. The home office needs big help.I have that project scheduled for the summer when I can focus on it for large amounts of time.
Shannon says
I think I am going to take on the office portion of one of the bedrooms since I surprisingly cleaned the washer and dryer which is my entire laundry room inside of our solo bathroom. I’ve been meaning to create more real estate for the office in the small bedroom and this day of the challenge seems like a great day to do it!
Haila says
We have a rec room in the basement. I’m thinking on focusing on decluttering – getting rid of stuff that accumulates there.
The laundry room will wait until later – it’s also our mud room, so I want to wait until the slush and mud season here in MN is a little closer to wrapping up before seriously tackling that job.
Melissa says
It’s not really a room but my project for today is to deal with getting the oil changed in my car. After a full 8.5 hours at the office and a 1 hour commute each way, that’s about as ambitious as I can be. 🙂
Jean says
I will tackle the laundry area in our unfinished basement…seems that since I can close the door, it stays messy and unorganized! Maybe I can create a spot to actually fold laundry right as it comes out of the dryer! Clothes tend.to get put in a basket and stay there….which means more ironing…time for a CHANGE!
Shelly says
I will be cleaning up the kids bedrooms today, since I didn’t get to them yesterday. I have three other rooms I could clean too but I think that both the kids’ rooms will be enough for today. 🙂
Have fun at the convention.
Kay says
The joy of a small apartment – we have no extra rooms! Main room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom…
Courtney S. says
Me too! This is making me appreciate our small apartment more. I guess we get the day off today. 🙂
Angela says
Same here! I just wiped off the washer/dryer and I’m done! I suppose I could spruce up the dining area a bit since it’s sort of an “extra space”… not part of the kitchen but not part of the living room sort of thing.
Crystal says
You get the day off! Yay for small apartments!
Krissy @ Just Take Two Bites says
Hmmm…my office is contained to a single cabinet and it’s pretty straight. Guess I’ll deal with the laundry room. It is in desperate need of organization. This one might be a doozy!
Annie says
I’m definitely going to do the laundry room!! YIKES! And I’m going to wash out the washing machine as well since I launder cloth diapers. I love these little daily projects…I actually look forward every morning for the next tackle of the day 😉
Carol@simple_catholic says
Today I’m going to tackle the laundry room and since the laundry room isn’t very big, I will also do the sun room. The sun room has a lot of windows and I really want to get them washed. 🙂
Kelly Love says
My goal is just the homeschool side of the bonus room. This morning I had to clean out and vacuum the van from our spring break trip and I’m exhausted!
Jenny says
Good luck at the convention Crystal!
Crystal says
Thanks so much!
Katie says
Oh the laundry room is a great idea! Ours is more like a closet in our kitchen which is why I wasn’t even thinking about it until you mentioned it. I’m going to clean the washer and dryer, mop the floor around the machines… And I should probably do laundry while I’m at it! 🙂
Chelsea says
Our office is in rough shape, so that’s my focus today.
Chelsea says
P.S. Hi. I’ve been silently lurking for a few months – This is my first comment 🙂
Elizabeth says
Oh goodness no not the laundry room! Err…. Did I mention that’s my junk, craft, pet care, computer part storage room too…. I think I’d need an entire day for that! Thank goodness I can give myself the excuse that I need to be getting off to work and forget all about seeing this post!
Good luck folks! You’ll need it if your odd rooms are junk collectors like mine!
Jessica @Proverbslady.com says
I will be cleaning my laundry room and I am so glad that this is the challenge today because I will also be gone today I volunteer to watch pre-school kids on Thursdays for our church MOPS and then I’m decorating our new Sunday school room and then it’s off to gymnastics with my daughter. I won’t even be home until 4:00 so this will be a nice small project for today!
Sarah says
My plan was to do a quick pick up of the laundry room and office, then really tackle the mess that has accumulated on the dining room table (I’ve been trying to rearrange/purge the kitchen cabinets and the “work in progress” has been living on the dining room table). However, my dad just told me he is available today with his truck to assist me in picking up a large piece of furniture that I have been needing to get for the nursery, so not sure how that will affect my timeline. I may end up having to do today’s task a little piece at a time over the next few days.
April says
I’m just joining in today. I’ve got a good head start. I had a huge pile of “to be filed” on my desk that I just tackled. So, I guess my surface cleaning will be in my office today. I guess now that I’m almost done, I’ll start working backwards to catch up.
Brooke says
I think I’m going to do the upstairs loft area and the laundry room!