Day 18 Assignment
::Get dressed in something that makes you feel great {there’s something about dressing in clothes that make you feel great that just gives you more energy and zest for life! Get your free copy of SarahMae’s ebook, Frumps to Pumps, if you need more motivation in this.}
::Sit down with a cup of coffee or tea, refer to your list of weekly goals, and make a list of no more than 5-7 specific things you want to accomplish today.
::Complete your morning routine {if you don’t have a morning routine, take some time to create one today! Read my How to Develop a Routine That Works–And Stick With It series for step-by-step help.}
::Set the timer for 15 minutes and vacuum the main living areas of your home.
::Vacuum your carpeted closets. Sweep or mop the floor in those closets without carpet. Remove all items from the closet floor and get rid of clutter, trash, and items that don’t belong in that closet.
::Find 7 items to get rid of today. Throw them out, stick them in a donate or garage sale box, give them to a friend who can use them, or list them on Craigslist or eBay.
Note: If you work outside the home or have a really busy week with little time for extra projects, just do the bolded project above.
At 9 p.m. ET tonight, I’ll be posting my progress and pictures, along with a link-up for you to share your progress and pictures, too. Here’s to our productivity today!
“Sweep or mop the floor in those closets without carpet.”
The last time I did this, I ended up tearing the closet apart and painting it, too! Hardly a one-evening experience.
It was a classic case of task-creep. All I meant to do was reorg the gift pile (I’m a master regifter and buyer-ahead of gifts, I am) and wrapping materials (I also resuse bags, tissue paper, ribbon and – if in good shape – paper, but it can be hard to keep organized).
Then I realized that the emergency supplies, also in the same closet, needed to be checked for expiry and reinventoried. So everything was out of the closet.
Which was the perfect time to sweep the floor, right? But I hadn’t done so in 8 years so getting it clean required hands-and-knees. Which meant I was up close and personal with the walls.
Which I realized hadn’t been painted when I moved in (oops) and desparately needed it. So I moved out the emergency water and dissembled that shelf, found painter’s tape, wall paint, rollers, and pan, and old clothes I was willing to donate to the cause … and taught myself how to paint.
Then everything had to be organized, inventoried, replaced if expired, the shelf reassembled (more efficiently and improved, of course), and tucked away in an efficient but accessible location. All in all it was 3 weeks from start to finish.
Sometimes I go to that closet and stand there, admiring the results of my hard work.
So I’ve been following along for a couple posts, and I’m ready to take the plunge. I’m moving, and I figure the same rules for organizing can apply to getting ready to close up house, so that’s what I’m going to do. Tomorrow I will start with day 1 (I may combine a few if I can, just to catch up)and then when move time comes, I should be ready to go!
Thanks for sharing and inspiring the rest of us! 🙂
Hey Crystal,
I love this whole 4 weeks thing, but I joined the bandwagon way late so I am just starting now. I wrote down all the assignments so far, but I didn’t see an assignment 15..is there one? I just saw 14 and then 16?
Thanks so much,
Kristin
I didn’t have internet access that day, but it will be in the final ebook that I’ll be posting at the end of the challenge.
Will be sad when this challenge is over. Have some to add:
check expiration date on fire extinguishers or have them check by a fire extinguisher company (we went to the fire department and asked the fire chief his opinions); check batteries in fire/carbon monoxide detectors and vaccuum dust; clean comforters on bed, turn mattress if not pillow-top, sprinkle top of mattress w/ combination of baking soda and lavendar essential oil–let rest for 1 hour then vaccuum (we also did this to our pillows) to get rid of the icky dust mites…you know you’ve all see pixs of those critters…
ok, I did it~! Found lots of trash, and lots of things to put on ebay. Thanks again for the push 🙂
UUGGHHHH!! This is one job that I do not want to do!! But I will 🙂
Yikes! I’m getting behind! We’re doing Biology projects this week (you don’t want to know!) and that’s a really BIG clean up! I do have to hit one closet for sure today- dh asked me to several days ago 🙂
This one will be fun.
That’s one of my problems. I only have one closet in the whole house and it doesn’t have a door. Words of wisdom: think REALLY hard before buying a fixer upper.
yikes! have you seen my closet? This is not easy 🙂 But thank you for the task!!
Is there anyway you can post the assignments in a spreadsheet or table? I’d like to start this begining in May (my April was too crazy!), but it would be easier to follow it and print it out if I had one master document.
I love the challenges though, and I can’t wait to get started. 🙂
Thanks for all you do to inspire and motivate your readers!
Stacey
Yes, I’ll be compiling it into an ebook with spreadsheets once the month is over with.
Oh geez, I did start cleaning the closets a couple of weeks ago then that stopped. 🙁
I’ve been grateful for these assignments because they really do make me do the things I really should be doing. I’ll admit, I’m a little behind, but with some daily motivation I manage to get some things done. I work outside of the house and don’t want to be a complainer, but it’s really hard for me. Not being with my baby girl all day, when I get home I just want to get dinner ready and give her all of my time until she goes to sleep. (in which it’s usually time for me to get to sleep myself and to give my hubby some alone time with me)
Maybe you and your husband can split the jobs? I work full time, too, so we’ve been sharing some of the assignments.
Tammy – to be honest, these daily items seem to me to be quite ambitious for those who work outside the house. If I were doing them, I’d aim to do one each day that I’m not working, recognizing that it’d take me months rather than weeks to get through the list.
Yes, there were definitely a few of them that were quite ambitious and might need to be relegated to weekend projects — or to take a whole week to tackle! 🙂
Your update about window cleaning make me chuckle.
Well at least old houses tend to have few closets and tiny closets. Still I best get started. I think I will have the kids do their own, that leaves me mine, the linen closest and a hall closet.
Oh, good! I have been meaning to sweep for DAYS. Thanks for the motivation!
Ouch! I was just thinking yesterday that it would be so wonderful if we could make better use of our LARGE master bedroom closet if it wasn’t such a mess. *sigh* I guess I need to get at it! 😉
Unusually excited to do this project today! How did you know that I am behind on my vacuuming? 😉
I already did my vacuuming on Monday. So I will get to the closets today. The kids will like helping with this assignment. I am sure there are dust bunnies in our closets.
You must be looking in my closets! Hubby went poking around in ours Sunday afternoon looking for his shoes that he wears with a tux because he and our youngest son were going to get measured for tuxes for our middle sons’ wedding. They were solidly covered with dust and he hasn’t worn them for 4 years since our last child got married. It made me wonder how long it has been since everything has come out of our closet. Unfortunately I won’t get to it today as the last Wed of the month is the day I cook for the homeless shelter. Now I have it on my mental list though so hopefully it will get done soon.
I wonder if this will be as big of a job as I’m anticipating. I hope not, but I’ll be glad to get it done. I may do some on the weekend…. almost all up to date….just have to do the living room and kitchen vents and clean out the kitchen island. I’m glad vacuuming was on the list today. I love to see the carpet vacuumed. Again, my house has never been so clean! What will I do without this challenge?:) I’ve never been so good at staying on top of it.
By the way, I challenged my husband to find 7 things to get rid of out of our closet…. he was able to fill a bag of clothes to donate! Yay!
That’s funny! “Remove all items on the closet floor.” If I did that, all of our things would be just sitting out in our tiny bedrooms and living room. 🙂 Our two bedroom closets and linen closet is my only source of storage for our 900 sq. ft. townhouse. We store all of our seasonal things like Christmas tree and decorations, fall decorations, as well as luggage, children’s clothing, tools, party supplies, large dishes that I can’t store in the kitchen, etc.
Thankfully, though, I spent yesterday cleaning out my closets. Yay! My husband is off on Wednesdays and Sundays, so today is our grocery shopping and errand running day. I am SO glad that I trusted my gut feeling yesterday and just went for cleaning the closets.
So far this morning I’ve already cleaned all the glass doors, windows and mirrors downstairs, trying to catch up on that assignment. I’ll finish the upstairs this afternoon. We’ll also tackle cleaning and vacuuming out the van and the car since my husband is here to help me.
Last night I completely scrubbed my stove, every little square inch, and cleaned underneath it (my husband pulled it out from the wall all the way). I also scrubbed the cabinets that touch the stove (how does so much gunk get down there anyway???) and scrubbed the wall behind the stove. Lastly I cleaned the microwave.
I’m feeling great to be catching up on assignments! I’m the type of person that once I get behind, I stay behind, so to actually be making progress is very encouraging. Thank you again for doing this challenge! 🙂
Reading that makes me so happy that my oven is built in, and my stove is just a stove top. I hated having to move the stove and clean around it.